Aluminum Nitride Piezoelectric Thin Film Research Articles

Investigation of Elastic Softening and Stiffening Effect of Aluminum Nitride Under Stress Loading by Born‐Lande Equation

As a core functional material in acoustic resonators and filters, the elasticity of aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric thin film and its correlated intrinsic properties deserve priority attention. This paper presents an in‐depth investigation of elastic softening and stiffening effect induced by stress loading in AlN piezoelectric thin film. Based on the Born‐Lande equation, the physical mechanism of such new intrinsic elastic property is revealed and predicted quantitatively for the first time from the perspective of atomic interaction forces. It is found that a maximum 6.7% modulation range of elasticity coefficient can be achieved under ultimate stress loading conditions from (−2.5, −2.5) to (2.5, 2.5) GPa. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineer of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Fabrication and application of flexible AlN piezoelectric film

A fabrication method for high quality flexible aluminum nitride piezoelectric thin films based on micro-nano fabrication technology is reported in this paper. Molybdenum (Mo)/aluminum nitride (AlN)/aluminum (Al) structure was prepared on silicon(100) by sputtering. Then, deep-reactive ion etching technology was used to remove the silicon material used for support, then the Mo/AlN/Al flexible sandwich film was obtained. The full-width at half-maximum of the AlN film (002) peak before and after removal of silicon was only 1.47° and 1.49°, respectively. No obvious cracks in the film under bending conditions were observed with a scanning electron microscope. Capacitance–voltage (C–V) test results showed that the capacitance curve of the sandwich structure was consistent with that of the double-sided Schottky junction. The flexible piezoelectric film with an active area of 2 × 2 mm2 exhibited an average peak-to-peak generated voltage of 0.6 V in energy harvesting tests, which indicates that the method could be used to fabricate high quality flexible energy collectors based on AlN film. The preparation scheme in this paper is compatible with integrated circuit processes and simple to implement, which lays a foundation for the wide application of flexible piezoelectric devices.

Tuneable Q-Factor of MEMS Cantilevers with Integrated Piezoelectric Thin Films.

In atomic force microscopes (AFM) a resonantly excited, micro-machined cantilever with a tip is used for sensing surface-related properties. When targeting the integration of AFMs into vacuum environments (e.g., for enhancing the performance of scanning electron microscopes), a tuneable Q-factor of the resonating AFM cantilever is a key feature to enable high speed measurements with high local resolution. To achieve this goal, in this study an additional mechanical stimulus is applied to the cantilever with respect to the stimulus provided by the macroscopic piezoelectric actuator. This additional stimulus is generated by an aluminum nitride piezoelectric thin film actuator integrated on the cantilever, which is driven by a phase shifted excitation. The Q-factor is determined electrically by the piezoelectric layer in a Wheatstone bridge configuration and optically verified in parallel with a laser Doppler vibrometer. Depending on the measurement technique, the Q-factor is reduced by a factor of about 1.9 (electrically) and 1.6 (optically), thus enabling the damping of MEMS structures with a straight-forward and cheap electronic approach.

A micro-electromechanical systems based vibration energy harvester with aluminum nitride piezoelectric thin film deposited by pulsed direct-current magnetron sputtering

Piezoelectric vibration-based energy harvesting is a promising alternative for the durable and reliable power supplies for the low-powered wireless sensor networks nodes. However, improving the piezoelectric vibration-based energy harvester’s energy conversion efficiency related closely on the structure parameters and materials become significant and urgent. In this paper, a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) cantilever-based aluminum nitride (AlN) vibration energy harvester is presented, modeled, optimized and fabricated. The c-axis oriented AlN piezo thin film is deposited by the pulsed direct-current magnetron sputtering with the optimized process parameters. Furthermore, the coupled distributed parameter model is derived in detailed, verified by using the ANSYS finite element analysis, and applied to the optimization of structural parameters and load resistance. Finally, the prototype of the device is fabricated by the standard bulk-silicon technology. As a result, at 1g and 210.85 Hz, the maximum output root mean square (RMS) voltage can reach to 4.66 V, the output average power and output average power density of the prototype is up to 56.4 μW and 854.55 μW/(cm3·g2) at a load resistance of 146.6 kΩ, respectively. The experimental results agree well with theoretical analysis. The derived CDP model has an important and effective guiding role in cantilever based piezoelectric vibration energy harvester for structural design and performance optimization, especially for the device with long tip mass. The prototype has wide application prospects in the fields of the wireless sensor network node such as the structural health monitoring system.

Flexible Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Filters toward Radiofrequency Wireless Communication.

This paper presents a flexible radiofrequency filter with a central frequency of 2.4 GHz based on film bulk acoustic wave resonators (FBARs). The flexible filter consists of five air-gap type FBARs, each comprised of an aluminum nitride piezoelectric thin film sandwiched between two thin-film electrodes. By transfer printing the inorganic film structure from a silicon wafer to an ultrathin polyimide substrate, high electrical performance and mechanical flexibility are achieved. The filter has a peak insertion loss of -1.14 dB, a 3 dB bandwidth of 107 MHz, and a temperature coefficient of frequency of -27 ppm °C-1 . The passband and roll-off characteristics of the flexible filter are comparable with silicon-based commercial products. No electrical performance degradation and mechanical failure occur under bending tests with a bending radius of 2.5 mm or after 100 bending cycles. The flexible FBAR filters are believed to be promising candidates for future flexible wireless communication systems.

Electric Field Stiffening Effect in c-Oriented Aluminum Nitride Piezoelectric Thin Films.

Aluminum nitride offers unique material advantages for the realization of ultrahigh-frequency acoustic devices attributed to its high ratio of stiffness to density, compatibility with harsh environments, and superior thermal properties. Although, to date, aluminum nitride thin films have been widely investigated regarding their electrical and mechanical characteristics under alternating small signal excitation, their ultrathin nature under large bias may also provide novel and useful properties. Here, we present a comprehensive investigation of electric field stiffening effect in c-oriented aluminum nitride piezoelectric thin films. By analyzing resonance characteristics in a 2.5 GHz aluminum nitride-based film bulk acoustic resonator, we demonstrate an up to 10% linear variation in the equivalent stiffness of aluminum nitride piezoelectric thin films when an electric field was applied from -150 to 150 MV/m along the c-axis. Moreover, for the first time, an atomic interaction mechanism is proposed to reveal the nature of electric field stiffening effect, suggesting that the nonlinear variation of the interatomic force induced by electric field modulation is the intrinsic reason for this phenomenon in aluminum nitride piezoelectric thin films. Our work provides vital experimental data and effective theoretical foundation for electric field stiffening effect in aluminum nitride piezoelectric thin films, indicating the huge potential in tunable ultrahigh-frequency microwave devices.

Fabrication and characterization of vibration-driven AlN piezoelectric micropower generator compatible with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor process

This article describes the aluminum nitride (AlN)-based piezoelectric microgenerator for scavenging energy from ambient vibration. To achieve the low resonance frequency and maximize power density, a parametric study has been carried out by analytical modeling and finite element analysis. The piezoelectric microgenerator consists of AlN piezoelectric thin film with molybdenum (Mo) electrodes and silicon (Si) proof mass. The AlN was deposited on silicon-on-insulator wafer which is used as an insulating layer to defend the leakage current. The Mo electrode provides the excellent c-axis crystal growth of AlN. The fabricated AlN piezoelectric microgenerator can generate up to 6.4 nW at a frequency of 389 Hz and acceleration of 1.0 g (1 g = 9.81 m/s2). In addition, the output voltage and power density are 22.6 mVrms and 11.3 nW/mm3, respectively. The proposed generator is highly suitable for batch processing and has the possibility of harvesting energy from the ambient vibration.

The Fabrication of Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvester Arrays Based on AlN Thin Film

This paper describes the fabrication and measurement results of piezoelectric energy harvester arrays based on aluminum nitride (AlN) as a piezoelectric material. The AlN piezoelectric thin film with crystal orientation (002) and crystal orientation (101) is deposited respectively by pulsed_DC sputtering on the different bottom electrode materials. Based on the AlN thin film, the piezoelectric vibration energy harvester arrays with 5 cantilever beams were developed. Then the load characteristics, frequency characteristics, harvester connected in series and parallel properties of harvester were investigated. In addition, we compare the properties of piezoelectric vibration energy harvester arrays with crystal orientation (101) and (002), where a record max power output of 0.23 μW and 0.38μW are obtained respectively when the value of acceleration was 1 g, while for the latter, the maximum power is 9.13 μW at the acceleration of 5.0g with the optimized resistance of 15 kΩ.

Fabrication and performance analysis of film bulk acoustic wave resonators

In this paper, a radio frequency reactive sputtering deposition technique for piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film formation on a gold (Au) bottom electrode and its successful application in a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) are investigated. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements show that the AlN films were deposited onto an Au bottom electrode with highly c-axis-preferred orientation, well-textured columnar structure with a fairly uniform grain size of approximately 83 nm. The roughness is measured at a root-mean square (RMS) value of 5.4 nm and the average peak to valley of each grain column is 46.3 nm. The FBAR consists of an AlN piezoelectric thin film sandwiched between Au electrodes, all of which lie on a thin low-stress silicon nitride which serves as a support membrane on silicon. The performance of FBAR device exhibits a significant of the series quality factor ( Q s), the parallel quality factor ( Q p), the effective electromechanical coupling coefficient ( k eff 2), and the bandwidths are 97, 120, 5.1%, and 24 MHz, respectively.