Conventional Surface Acoustic Wave Devices Research Articles

Removable and replaceable micro-mixing system with surface acoustic wave actuators

Abstract A micromixer based on a surface acoustic wave (SAW) has attracted a great deal of attention because of their ability to mix liquids and multiphase flows with very high mixing efficiency. However, since microfluidic channels cloud only be formed directly on the piezoelectric substrate in conventional SAW devices, contamination problems have arisen. In this study, by placing a solution that propagates sound waves between the microfluidic channel and the SAW excitation substrate, vibrations caused by SAWs are propagated into the micro-well to form a micro-mixing system. This system can provide a micromixer that is removable, replaceable, and contamination-free.

Ultrahigh frequency shear-horizontal acoustic wave humidity sensor with ternary nanocomposite sensing layer

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology is promising for humidity monitoring due to its digital output, small size, large-scale production and wireless passive capability, but there are major challenges to achieve ultra-high sensitivity and fast responses using the conventional SAW devices. Herein, ultrahigh frequency (4.7 GHz and 5.9 GHz) shear-horizontal (SH) SAW devices were developed and a ternary nanocomposite strategy of graphene quantum dots/polyethyleneimine/silicon dioxide nanoparticles (GQDs-PEI-SiO2 NPs) was proposed as a sensitive layer to achieve ultrahigh sensitivity and fast response. This ternary material system was constructed by modifying the surface of SiO2 NPs with the PEI through an electrostatic force, and then adsorbing the GQDs onto the PEI through hydrogen bonds. Compared with the conventional low frequency SAW devices, the ultrahigh frequency SH-SAW devices showed exceptionally ultra-high sensitivity (2.4 MHz/%RH, 1000 times as high as a 202 MHz SAW device), fast response (20 s/5 s), excellent linearity, and good repeatability in the range of 20–80% RH. These superior performances are attributed to ultrahigh frequency of SAW devices, large specific surface areas of the nanocomposite (which exposed multiple hydrophilic groups in PEI and GQDs), and high vapor pressure of convex spherical curved liquid surface (which accelerated the adsorption and desorption of water molecules).

Record-Breaking Frequency of 44 GHz Based on the Higher Order Mode of Surface Acoustic Waves with LiNbO3/SiO2/SiC Heterostructures

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology has been extensively explored for wireless communication, sensors, microfluidics, photonics, and quantum information processing. However, due to fabrication issues, the frequencies of SAW devices are typically limited to within a few gigahertz, which severely restricts their applications in 5G communication, precision sensing, photonics, and quantum control. To solve this critical problem, we propose a hybrid strategy that integrates a nanomanufacturing process (i.e., nanolithography) with a LiNbO3/SiO2/SiC heterostructure and successfully achieve a record-breaking frequency of about 44 GHz for SAW devices, in addition to large electromechanical coupling coefficients of up to 15.7%. We perform a theoretical analysis and identify the guided higher order wave modes generated on these slow-on-fast SAW platforms. To demonstrate the superior sensing performance of the proposed ultra-high-frequency SAW platforms, we perform micro-mass sensing and obtain an extremely high sensitivity of approximately 33151.9 MHz·mm2·μg−1, which is about 1011 times higher than that of a conventional quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and about 4000 times higher than that of a conventional SAW device with a frequency of 978 MHz.

Mm-band surface acoustic wave devices utilizing two-dimensional boron nitride

The simple structure, low power consumption, and small form factor have made surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices essential to mobile communication as RF filters. For instance, the latest 5G smartphones are equipped with almost 100 acoustic wave filters to select a specific frequency band and increase communication capacity. On the arrival of the newest communication standard, 5G, mm-band up to 39 GHz is supposed to be utilized, whereas the conventional SAW filters are limited to below 3 GHz, leaving a critical component missing. Here, we show an emerging 2D material—hexagonal boron nitride—can become a key enabler of mm-band SAW filter. Our study, based on first principles analysis and acousto-electric simulation, shows the operating frequency of SAW devices can reach over 20 GHz in its fundamental mode and 40 GHz in its interface mode with high electromechanical coupling coefficient (K2) and low insertion loss. In addition to the orders of magnitude improvement compared to the conventional SAW devices, our study provides a systematic approach to utilizing van der Waals crystals with highly anisotropic acoustic properties for practical applications.

Ultrafast dynamical charge-lattice coupling in rare-earth nickelate thin films studied by time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy

Rare-earth nickelates exhibit a rich phase diagram formed by the complex interplay of intertwined and competing energetics of fundamental entities. To unwind the coupling and interaction mechanisms of fundamental entities underneath, time-resolved terahertz (THz) spectroscopy was implemented to understand non-equilibrium carrier and lattice dynamics of epitaxial thin films of La x Eu1−x NiO3 (x = 0, 0.25, 0.50, 1) systems, where x = 0 is insulating while remaining are metallic at room temperature. The THz transmittance of the insulating and metallic phases exhibit contrasting photo-induced phases associated with bi-exponential and mono-exponential relaxation mechanisms, respectively. A pronounced oscillatory feature superimposed on the mono-exponential relaxation manifests only in the metallic phase. As ascribed to the acoustic phonons, the ‘x’ dependent behavior of this feature reveals an inverse relation between the strength of electron–phonon coupling and the magnitude of conductivity. In the insulating state, in contrast, the relaxation time constants are associated with the recovery of charge-ordering and electron–phonon thermalization. This dynamical lattice–charge interaction study demonstrates use of this ultrafast phenomena in nickelate thin films in new generation ultrafast photo-acoustic devices as an alternate to conventional surface acoustic wave device.

Ultrahigh-Frequency Surface Acoustic Wave Sensors with Giant Mass-Loading Effects on Electrodes.

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are widely used for physical, chemical, and biological sensing applications, and their sensing mechanisms are generally based on frequency changes due to mass-loading effects at the acoustic wave propagation area between two interdigitated transducers (IDTs). In this paper, a new sensing mechanism has been proposed based on a significantly enhanced mass-loading effect generated directly on Au IDT electrodes, which enables significantly enhanced sensitivity, compared with that of conventional SAW devices. The fabricated ultrahigh-frequency SAW devices show a significant mass-loading effect on the electrodes. When the Au-electrode thickness increased from 12 to 25 nm, the Rayleigh mode resonant frequency decreased from 7.77 to 5.93 GHz, while that of the higher longitudinal leaky SAW decreased from 11.87 to 9.83 GHz. The corresponding mass sensitivity of 7309 MHz·mm2·μg-1 (Rayleigh mode) is ∼8.9 × 1011 times larger than that of a conventional quartz crystal balance (with a frequency of 5 MHz) and ∼1000 times higher than that of conventional SAW devices (with a frequency of 978 MHz). Trinitrotoluene concentration as low as 4.4 × 10-9 M (mol·L-1) can be detected using the fabricated SAW sensor, proving its giant mass-loading effect and ultrahigh sensitivity.

30 GHz surface acoustic wave transducers with extremely high mass sensitivity

A nano-patterning process is reported in this work, which can achieve surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices with an extremely high frequency and a super-high mass sensitivity. An integrated lift-off process with ion beam milling is used to minimize the short-circuiting problem and improve the quality of nanoscale interdigital transducers (IDTs). A specifically designed proximity-effect-correction algorithm is applied to mitigate the proximity effect occurring in the electron-beam lithography process. The IDTs with a period of 160 nm and a finger width of 35 nm are achieved, enabling a frequency of ∼30 GHz on lithium niobate based SAW devices. Both centrosymmetric type and axisymmetric type IDT structures are fabricated, and the results show that the centrosymmetric type tends to excite lower-order Rayleigh waves and the axisymmetric type tends to excite higher-order wave modes. A mass sensitivity of ∼388.2 MHz × mm2/μg is demonstrated, which is ∼109 times larger than that of a conventional quartz crystal balance and ∼50 times higher than a conventional SAW device with a wavelength of 4 μm.

Graphene-Based Fully Transparent Thin Film Surface Acoustic Wave Devices for Sensing and Lab-on-Chip Applications

This paper explores to use graphene as transparent interdigital transducer (IDT) electrode for a fully transparent surface acoustic wave (SAW) device due to its extraordinary electrical, physical and mechanical properties. The number of graphene atomic layers was firstly optimized for its best performance as the SAW electrode, and a 4-layered graphene IDT electrode, with aluminum doped zinc oxide, AZO, as the bus bar and wire bonding pad, was selected to fabricate fully transparent ZnO/glass SAW devices. The SAW resonators exhibited obvious resonant response at different wavelengths, and resonance signals with amplitude up to 20 dB were obtained with the transparency above 80%. The graphene-based transparent SAW sensor has been used for different sensing applications. Temperature sensing tests showed that the frequencies increase linearly with the increase of temperature, which has an opposite trend compared to that obtained from a conventional LiNbO3 SAW device. The humidity sensing and human breathing detection have been demonstrated, and discontinuous respiration measurement can be used to distinguish the human respiration at the normal state or the state after exercise. Strong acoustic streaming and particle concentration using the transparent SAW devices have been achieved, which are suitable for microfluidic and lab-on-chip applications.

Lamb Wave Characteristics of Composite Plates Including a Diamond Layer with Distinct Electrode Arrangements

Diamond films have been utilized to develop surface acoustic wave filters and micromechanical resonators because of the highest acoustic wave velocity and largest product of frequency and quality factor (f·Q) of diamond among all materials. A theoretical analysis of Lamb wave characteristics in multilayer piezoelectric plates including a diamond layer is presented in this paper. Formulae for effective permittivity are derived using the transfer matrix method and are further employed to calculate Lamb wave phase velocity dispersions. The electromechanical coupling coefficients (ECCs) are also calculated exactly by Green's function method. Detailed calculations are carried out for ZnO/diamond and AlN/diamond composite plates with four distinct electrode arrangements. Results show that the ZnO/diamond structure yields a phase velocity of 6420 m/s and a large ECC of 7.41%, which makes it suitable for high-frequency wideband filter applications. Moreover, in the AlN/diamond structure, the S0 mode exhibits a large phase velocity of up to 10.3 km/s and a moderate ECC of 1.97%. Such favorable characteristics are expected to contribute to the development of AlN/diamond Lamb wave oscillators operating at approximately 5–10 GHz without the need for a sub-micrometer-resolution lithographic process. Therefore, both ZnO/diamond and AlN/diamond Lamb wave devices are highly promising candidates for RF devices in modern communication systems with advantages over conventional surface acoustic wave devices.

Surface acoustic wave devices on AlN/3C–SiC/Si multilayer structures

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) propagation characteristics in a multilayer structure including a piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film and an epitaxial cubic silicon carbide (3C–SiC) layer on a silicon (Si) substrate are investigated by theoretical calculation in this work. Alternating current (ac) reactive magnetron sputtering was used to deposit highly c-axis-oriented AlN thin films, showing the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the rocking curve of 1.36° on epitaxial 3C–SiC layers on Si substrates. In addition, conventional two-port SAW devices were fabricated on the AlN/3C–SiC/Si multilayer structure and SAW propagation properties in the multilayer structure were experimentally investigated. The surface wave in the AlN/3C–SiC/Si multilayer structure exhibits a phase velocity of 5528 m s−1 and an electromechanical coupling coefficient of 0.42%. The results demonstrate the potential of AlN thin films grown on epitaxial 3C–SiC layers to create layered SAW devices with higher phase velocities and larger electromechanical coupling coefficients than SAW devices on an AlN/Si multilayer structure. Moreover, the FWHM values of rocking curves of the AlN thin film and 3C–SiC layer remained constant after annealing for 500 h at 540 °C in air atmosphere. Accordingly, the layered SAW devices based on AlN thin films and 3C–SiC layers are applicable to timing and sensing applications in harsh environments.

Finite-Element Modeling of a Hexagonal Surface Acoustic Wave Device Based on ${\rm LiNbO}_{3}$ Substrate

We present a 3-D coupled-field finite-element model of a novel hexagonal surface acoustic wave (SAW) device which finds applications in materials characterization, as well as in chemical and biological sensing. Calculated frequency response as well as wave propagation characteristics along the three different delay paths corresponding to crystal orientations with Euler angles (0, 90, 90), (0, 90, 30), and (0, 90, 150) for a LiNbO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> substrate are analyzed using this finite-element structural model. The transient response of the hexagonal SAW device upon application of an impulse electrical input at the transmitting interdigital transducer fingers is utilized to deduce its frequency response. The amplitude fields as well as displacement contours, generated in an AC analysis, along the SAW delay-line and substrate depth are analyzed and utilized to evaluate the wave propagation characteristics along the three propagation directions in this hexagonal SAW device. Our findings indicate that the acoustic waves generated in the three Euler directions are very different in character. The (0, 90, 30) and (0, 90, 150) directions have mixed modes with a prominent shear-horizontal component, whereas the (0, 90, 90) direction generates a Rayleigh wave. This allows the hexagonal device based on LiNbO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> to be used for rapid and simultaneous extraction of multiple parameters (film material density, Lame and shear modulii, sheet conductivity) of a thin-film material and achieve a more complete characterization in comparison to a conventional SAW device. Comparison of the simulation results with those obtained using perturbational models and experiments shows good agreement. This validation enables the consideration of such complicated device configurations for practical application, and allows for extending the developed models to analyze propagation characteristics in these SAW devices based on other bare and multilayered piezoelectric substrates prior to fabrication.

Self-Assembled Monolayer Compatible with Metal Surface Acoustic Wave Devices on Lithium Niobate

The formation of a siloxane self-assembled monolayer (SAM) film on a lithium niobate substrate was investigated for surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor devices for the detection of hydrogen. The most widely used SAM coupling reagent, octadecyltrichlorosilane, etches aluminum metal features that are integral to sensor devices, due to the formation of high local concentrations of hydrochloric acid. An alternative coupling reagent, octadecyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS), does not show any etching of metal parts. OTMS and related molecules are compatible with conventional SAW device manufacturing techniques and other devices that contain metal features susceptible to etching by acid released in the SAM formation process.

Surface acoustic wave device, and mobile communication device and sensor both using same

In a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device, such as a SAW resonator or a SAW filter, loss is minimized and steep characteristics are improved. IDT electrodes and a reflector are provided to a piezoelectric substrate cut out at a cut-angle which allows the substrate to excite a leaky surface acoustic wave (LSAW). The IDT electrodes have a given film thickness and a given pitch “p” of finger-electrodes. A phase velocity of the SAW is reduced to slower than a phase velocity “vb”of a slow shear wave propagating on the piezoelectric substrate, and a resonance frequency “f” satisfies a relation of 2×p≦vb/f. This structure allows the use of a Rayleigh surface acoustic wave (RSAW) which does not produce propagation loss, and improving insertion-loss and steep characteristics from those of a conventional SAW device using the LSAW.

Frequency response of a focused SAW device based on concentric wave surfaces: simulation and experiment

Focused interdigital transducers (FIDTs) based on concentric wave surfaces can excite surface acoustic wave (SAW) with high intensity, high beamwidth compression ratio and small localized area. In this paper, we developed a model to analyse the frequency response of a SAW device with FIDTs based on concentric wave surfaces. First, we constructed a focused SAW device by adopting a pair of FIDTs shaped as the concentric wave surface. To calculate its frequency response, a simulation model was established based on the 2D SAW filter model, effective permittivity approach and perturbation theory. Further, the focused SAW devices were designed and fabricated via the microelectromechanical system process technique. A good agreement between the simulated and measured results was found. Finally, the frequency responses of focused SAW devices based on concentric wave surfaces were discussed and some attractive features were found, such as less ripples of pass-band and high stop-band rejection. In addition, in comparison with the conventional SAW devices with uniform interdigital transducers, the focused SAW devices are more sensitive to variations in the focal area, instead of the whole delayline region. Accordingly, they are suitable to be applied to detect or manipulate some localized variations, such as acousto-optic or acousto-electric effects.

Development of film bulk acoustic wave resonators based on piezoelectric aluminum nitride

Film bulk acoustic wave resonators (FBARs) have high quality factors (Q) and are smaller than conventional surface acoustic wave devices, so they are particularly suitable for constructing the bandpass filters of mobile phones. This report covers the simulation and fabrication of FBARs consisting of an aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric layer sandwiched between molybdenum (Mo) electrode layers. The simulation was based on Mason’s equivalent circuit model. Other than material Q, the AlN material constants for the FBAR model were those reported by Tsubouchi and Mikoshiba [K. Tsubouchi and N. Mikoshiba, IEEE Trans. Sonics Ultrason. 32, 634–644 (1985)]. The material Q of AlN was assumed to be 1000. Thickness values for the AlN and Mo films were determined by simulation, after which the FBARs were fabricated. Reactive radio-frequency sputtering and direct-current sputtering were adopted for deposition of the AlN and Mo films, respectively. In terms of frequency properties, our FBARs achieved Q of 800 and an effective electromechanical coupling coefficient of 5.7%. The transmission loss was greater than that calculated through simulation. This result suggests that the material Q of AlN is less than 1000. This may be due to suboptimal film quality.

SAW device modeling including velocity dispersion based on ZnO/diamond/Si layered structures

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter properties of ZnO/diamond/Si structures are calculated including velocity dispersion. The conventional SAW device modeling has previously been developed for bulk substrates. However, layered materials exhibit SAW velocity dispersion. The null frequency bandwidth of typical layered ZnO/diamond/Si structures is narrower than that calculated by conventional SAW device modeling techniques due to the velocity dispersion of the layered structures. The null frequency bandwidth of layered structures was calculated by the delta function model and the equivalent circuit model, including velocity dispersion, and compared with the experimental results. The dispersive equivalent circuit (DEC) model for layered structures is also presented. The results of these analysis are compared with the experimental results which show very good agreement.

Electro-optic and electro-absorptive modulations of AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well using surface acoustic wave

The surface acoustic wave produced electron absorptive and electro-optic modulation in AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well structures are theoretically analyzed. The quantum well structures are optimized by maximizing the optical confinement of the modal field in the active region and the piezoelectric effect of surface acoustic wave on the quantum wells. The effect of penetration depth of the surface acoustic wave on the number (1–25 periods) of quantum wells, serving as the active region, is being studied. For 1–5 period structures, the quantum wells are designed on the top surface so that a strong piezoelectric effect can be obtained. For the 25-period structure, the quantum wells locate at a depth of two-thirds the acoustic-wave wavelength in order to obtain a uniform surface acoustic-wave-induced electric field. The results show that the single and five quantum well devices are suitable for absorptive modulation and optical modulation, respectively, while a general advantage of the 25-period quantum well modulator can shorten the modulation interaction length and increase the modulation bandwidth. The effective index change of these devices are at least ten times larger than the conventional surface acoustic wave devices. These results make the surface acoustic wave quantum well modulators more attractive for the development of acousto-optic device applications.