Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonator Research Articles

Design and Fabrication of a Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Filter for 3.0 GHz-3.2 GHz S-Band.

Film bulk acoustic-wave resonators (FBARs) are widely utilized in the field of radio frequency (RF) filters due to their excellent performance, such as high operation frequency and high quality. In this paper, we present the design, fabrication, and characterization of an FBAR filter for the 3.0 GHz-3.2 GHz S-band. Using a scandium-doped aluminum nitride (Sc0.2Al0.8N) film, the filter is designed through a combined acoustic-electromagnetic simulation method, and the FBAR and filter are fabricated using an eight-step lithographic process. The measured FBAR presents an effective electromechanical coupling coefficient (keff2) value up to 13.3%, and the measured filter demonstrates a -3 dB bandwidth of 115 MHz (from 3.013 GHz to 3.128 GHz), a low insertion loss of -2.4 dB, and good out-of-band rejection of -30 dB. The measured 1 dB compression point of the fabricated filter is 30.5 dBm, and the first series resonator burns out first as the input power increases. This work paves the way for research on high-power RF filters in mobile communication.

High Figure-of-Merit Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonator Based on Al0.87Sc0.13N Film Prepared Using a Novel Dual-Stage Method

High Figure-of-Merit Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonator Based on Al_0.87Sc_0.13N Film Prepared Using a Novel Dual-Stage Method

Aluminium Scandium Nitride Thin Film BAW Resonators (FBAR) for 5G Applications

With the growing impact of 5G communication system, Radio-Frequency Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (RF MEMS) technologies are becoming increasingly important in our daily lives. Development of filters in the 5G frequency range is being carried out tremendously. The rapid rise in smartphone usage, heightened data demands, congestion in the frequency spectrum, and advancements in technology have posed numerous challenges for the development of RF filters. The ultimate goal is to simplify the RF Front End Module used in smart phones, thereby achieving better selectivity. In this paper, a high frequency - high Q thin film bulk acoustic wave resonator of piezoelectric material Aluminium scandium nitride (AlScN)based FBAR is designed for 5G Application. Finite element analysis conducted using the COMSOL Multiphysics software assess the characteristics of the constructed FBAR. The outcomes indicate that the device resonates effectively at 5 GHz, exhibiting commendable return loss and a Q-factor of 1490. A high-resonance-frequency FBAR device offers advantages for 5G mobile technology.

Design and Fabrication of 3.5 GHz Band-Pass Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator Filter

With the development of wireless communication, increasing signal processing presents higher requirements for radio frequency (RF) systems. Piezoelectric acoustic filters, as important elements of an RF front-end, have been widely used in 5G-generation systems. In this work, we propose a Sc0.2Al0.8N-based film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) for use in the design of radio frequency filters for the 5G mid-band spectrum with a passband from 3.4 to 3.6 GHz. With the excellent piezoelectric properties of Sc0.2Al0.8N, FBAR shows a large Keff2 of 13.1%, which can meet the requirement of passband width. Based on the resonant characteristics of Sc0.2Al0.8N FBAR devices, we demonstrate and fabricate different ladder-type FBAR filters with second, third and fourth orders. The test results show that the out-of-band rejection improves and the insertion loss decreases slightly as the filter order increases, although the frequency of the passband is lower than the predicted ones due to fabrication deviation. The passband from 3.27 to 3.47 GHz is achieved with a 200 MHz bandwidth and insertion loss lower than 2 dB. This work provides a potential approach using ScAlN-based FBAR technology to meet the band-pass filter requirements of 5G mid-band frequencies.

Highly improved quality factor of the film bulk acoustic wave resonator by introducing a high quality ZnO buffer layer

The inferior film quality of sputtered AlN has hindered the further development of high-performance film bulk acoustic wave resonators (FBAR). In this work, the ZnO buffer layer was introduced into the FBAR to improve the performance of FBAR for the first time. Compared with its counterpart without the buffer layer, the devices with a buffer layer exhibited a far higher average quality factor (2π times the maximum energy stored in the FBAR/energy dissipated per period) of 2575 ± 136, which was about 64 % larger than that without a buffer layer. Benefiting from the enhanced crystalline quality of AlN, the device also showed an improved effective electromechanical coupling coefficient.

Advanced technologies of FBAR for tuning effective electromechanical coupling coefficient

The film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) is one of the most popular devices in the radio frequency field. Numerous researchers are simultaneously working to develop an effective electromechanical coupling coefficient (keff2) tuning technology, aiming to meet the diverse bandwidth requirements of the 5 G era. Based on a traditional FBAR process, this work prepares several different devices and then analyzes the four factors that influence keff2 from the perspective of process, material, and design. The pillar structure achieves the largest keff2 tuning range of 2.84% (33 MHz). The composite piezoelectric film can tune the overall resonant frequency in a wide range, and its keff2 tuning range is 1.75% (12.5 MHz). The area effect tunes the fs in a small range, ultimately achieving a keff2 tuning range of 1.16% (11 MHz). Film stress regulation achieves keff2 tuning range of 2.73% (30 MHz), but it has the greatest difficulty. The integration of various keff2 tunable methods has important guiding significance for the design of FBAR filters in the future.

Analysis of Different Piezoelectric Materials on the Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonator

The performance of film bulk acoustic wave resonators (FBAR) is greatly dependent on the choice of piezoelectric materials. Different piezoelectric materials have distinct properties that can impact the performance of FBAR. Hence, this work presents the analysis of three different piezoelectric materials which are aluminum nitride (AlN), scandium aluminum nitride (ScAlN) and zinc oxide (ZnO) on the performance of FBARs working at resonance frequencies of 6 GHz until 10 GHz. The one-dimensional (1-D) modelling is implemented to characterize the effects of these materials on the quality (Q) factor, electromechanical coupling coefficient (k2eff) and bandwidth (BW). It is determined that employing ScAlN in FBAR results in the highest Q factor, ranges from 628 to 1047 while maintaining a relatively compact area (25 µm × 25 µm) and thickness (430 nm to 720 nm). However, ScAlN yields the narrowest BW, measuring 0.11 GHz at 6 GHz, as opposed to AlN and ZnO, which exhibit broader bandwidths of 0.16 GHz and 0.23 GHz, respectively.

An analysis of nonlinear thickness vibration frequencies of multi-layered film bulk acoustic resonators

The fast reduction of the physical size of film bulk acoustic wave resonators as a layered structure implies the intensification of the electric field which can induce large deformation in the functioning state of devices as a circuit element. Consequently, the nonlinear behavior of the resonator and accompanying properties are to be included and evaluated in the development and optimization for performance improvement. With this objective, the nonlinear formulation of a multilayered film bulk acoustic resonator is presented for the analysis of vibration frequencies and mode shapes with the consideration of larger mechanical deformation. The dominantly linear relationship between the voltage or deformation and frequency is obtained to understand the nonlinear behavior and properties which have been subjected to extensive research analytically and experimentally to satisfy the application needs in all modes of communications and network technology.

An 8-inch commercial aluminum nitride MEMS platform for the co-existence of Lamb wave and film bulk acoustic wave resonators

This work investigates a co-design approach for fundamental symmetric Lamb wave (S0) resonators (LWR) and film bulk acoustic wave resonators (FBAR) in a commercial 8-inch aluminum nitride (AlN) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) platform to enable multi-band operation. The platform utilizes surface micromachining to define local release cavities, providing an undercut-free solution for acoustic resonators to achieve a high quality factor (Q). However, being based on a standardized platform initially tailored for FBAR devices, many design considerations and trade-offs need to be investigated for the co-existence between LWR and FBAR design. Hence, to capture the optimal design window for S0 LWRs while analyzing its performance impact on existing FBARs, the electrode configuration and its thickness are thoroughly investigated by the finite element method. In this work, a 2.2 GHz FBAR, a 700 MHz S0 LWR, and a 2.19 GHz S0 Lamé LWR are demonstrated for performance evaluation across different types of devices in this platform. The measurement results revealed a baseline performance for the FBAR device with an electromechanical coupling factor () of 6.73% and Q of 3017 at 2.2 GHz, resulting in a high figure-of-merit (FoM = ) over 200. In comparison, the 700 MHz S0 LWR exhibits a high Q of 2532 as well and a of 1.1% (FoM = 27.8), while the 2.19 GHz S0 Lamé LWR also exhibits a high Q of 1752 and a of 2.44% (FoM = 42.7), respectively. These performance indexes are all comparable with the current state-of-the-art, revealing the excellent potential of this AlN MEMS platform being implemented for future LWR development design or even mass production.

Characteristics of c-axis oriented GeAlN films and applications to higher-order mode BAW resonators

AlN film bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators and filters that operate at frequencies above 5 GHz are required for 5G and beyond 5G communication applications. However, the power-handling capability, Q factor, and electromechanical coupling in high-frequency AlN film BAW resonators will be degraded as a result of the significantly reduced thickness and volume of the devices. Higher-order mode BAW resonators with polarity inverted (PI) multilayered films can operate at high frequencies while maintaining the thickness and volume of the devices. In this study, we fabricated an eight-layered PI GeAlN/AlN film BAW resonator by alternately growing Al-polar AlN layers and N-polar GeAlN layers. The PI GeAlN/AlN film BAW resonator resonated in the 8th-order mode. The film thickness of the PI GeAlN/AlN film BAW resonator was approximately thirteen times larger than that of a single-layer AlN film BAW resonator operating in the same frequency range.

Aluminum scandium nitride thin-film bulk acoustic resonators for 5G wideband applications

Bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filters have been extensively used in consumer products for mobile communication systems due to their high performance and standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible integration process. However, it is challenging for a traditional aluminum nitride (AlN)-based BAW filter to meet several allocated 5G bands with more than a 5% fractional bandwidth via an acoustic-only approach. In this work, we propose an Al0.8Sc0.2N-based film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) for the design of radio frequency (RF) filters. By taking advantage of a high-quality Al0.8Sc0.2N thin film, the fabricated resonators demonstrate a large Keff2 of 14.5% and an excellent figure of merit (FOM) up to 62. The temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) of the proposed resonator is measured to be −19.2 ppm/°C, indicating excellent temperature stability. The fabricated filter has a center frequency of 4.24 GHz, a −3 dB bandwidth of 215 MHz, a small insertion loss (IL) of 1.881 dB, and a rejection >32 dB. This work paves the way for the realization of wideband acoustic filters operating in the 5G band.

An in-tire-pressure monitoring SoC using FBAR resonator-based ZigBee transceiver and deep learning models

In automobiles, tires play an important role in ensuring safe driving. Hence tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) has become the most important safety system in automobile vehicles. In this work, a new indirect TMPS is proposed that measures the pressure of all the tyres indirectly using the available sensors already mounted for typical vehicle dynamics control purposes. The available sensors in vehicles usually contain a power supply module, a microcontroller, and transceiver and resonator circuitry. The available wheel speed sensor is modified by reducing the wireless receiver system in communication protocols to minimize the power consumption. The transceiver structure is modified using a suitable local oscillator (LO) frequency plan based on a temperature-compensated thin film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR). In addition, the proposed TPMS SoC uses a deep-stacked autoencoder to detect the adherence conditions of the tires and a pressure loss based on wheel speed. This module will initially pre-process the speed signals to remove the speed error caused by manufacturing error. After pre-processing, different features such as statistical, frequency-domain and the fitted frequency-domain characteristics are extracted from the wheel speed signal and fed to the learning model for the judgment of the tire state. The proposed system was designed in Verilog synthesis and layout were made in cadence tool. For ASIC implementation, we use TSMC 65 nm CMOS Library for LNA/hybrid mixer design. The performance measures of the pressure detection model in terms of accuracy and errors are evaluated. Also, the performance metrics of the transceiver architecture in terms of gain, NF, IIP3, S11 and FOM are evaluated. The experimental evaluation describes that the model procures a maximum gain of 58 dB, NF of 2.15 dB and IIP3 of 6.6 dBm respectively. The die area is 0.45 mm2with 0.8 supply voltage and 0.83 mW power. In addition to this, the relationship between peak amplitude and speed vehicle regarding time and frequency domain features are evaluated.

High-order mode bulk acoustic wave resonators based on polarity-inverted SiAlN/AlN multilayered films for high-frequency operation

AlN film bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators operating at above 5 GHz for next generation mobile communications present some problems, such as the very thin thickness of the piezoelectric film and electrode films. These cause degradations of the power handling capability, electromechanical coupling factor, and Q value in film BAW resonators. Polarity-inverted multilayered AlN film BAW resonators can operate in high-order mode resonance. Therefore, an n-layer polarity-inverted film BAW resonator has n-times thicker piezoelectric film thickness than a standard BAW resonator with a monolayer piezoelectric film operating at same frequency. However, fabrication methods for polarity-inverted multilayered AlN films have not been established. This paper examines the effect of Si doping on AlN films on the crystal orientation, polarity direction, and electromechanical coupling factor (kt2). Furthermore, we fabricated and evaluated two- to eight-layer polarity-inverted SiAlN/AlN film high-overtone bulk acoustic wave resonators (HBARs). The polarity of the SixAl1−xN films inverted around x = 0.024–0.13. The crystal orientation and kt2 of the SixAl1-xN films were degraded with increasing Si concentration x. The eight-layer polarity-inverted SiAlN/AlN film HBAR resonated in the eighth mode. Moreover, the experimental longitudinal wave insertion loss exhibited a similar trend to the theoretical curve calculated by a Mason's equivalent circuit model considering the polarity inverted structure. The eight-layer polarity-inverted HBARs had approximately eight-times thicker piezoelectric film thickness than the monolayer AlN film HBAR. The insertion loss improved with increasing the number of polarity-inverted layers.

In-Line Detection with Microfluidic Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonator Gas Sensor for Gas Chromatography.

A microfluidic film bulk acoustic wave resonator gas sensor (mFBAR) adapted specifically as an in-line detector in gas chromatography was described. This miniaturized vapor sensor was a non-destructive detector with very low dead volume (0.02 μL). It was prepared by enclosing the resonator in a microfluidic channel on a chip with dimensions of only 15 mm × 15 mm × 1 mm. The device with polymer coating showed satisfactory performance in the detection of organophosphorus compound, demonstrating a very low detection limit (a dozen parts per billion) with relatively short response time (about fifteen seconds) toward the simulant of chemical warfare agent, dimethyl methylphosphonate. The in-line detection of the mFBAR sensor with FID was constructed and employed to directly measure the concentration profile on the solid surface by the mFBAR with the controlled concentration profile in the mobile phase at the same time. The difference of peak-maximum position between mobile phase and solid phase could be a convenient indicator to measure mass transfer rate. With the response of the mFBAR and FID obtained in one injection, an injection mass-independent parameter can be calculated and used to identify the analyte of interest.

Numerical Investigation of Phononic Crystal Based Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonators.

Film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR)-based filters have attracted great attention because they can be used to build high-performance RF filters with low cost and small device size. Generally, FBARs employ the air cavity and Bragg mirror to confine the acoustic energy within the piezoelectric layer, so as to achieve high quality factors and low insertion loss. Here, two-dimensional (2D) phononic crystals (PhCs) are proposed to be the acoustic energy reflection layer for an FBAR (PhC-FBAR). Four kinds of PhC structures are investigated, and their bandgap diagrams and acoustic wave reflection coefficients are analyzed using the finite element method (FEM). Then, the PhCs are used as the acoustic wave reflectors at the bottom of the piezoelectric stack, with high reflectivity for elastic waves in the specific frequency range. The results show that the specific PhC possesses a wide bandgap, which enables the PhC-FBAR to work at a broad frequency range. Furthermore, the impedance spectra of PhC-FBARs are very smooth with few spurious modes, and the quality factors are close to those of traditional FBARs with air cavities, showing the application potential of the PhC-FBAR filters with wide bandwidth and high power capability.

Frequency shift prediction of a shear mode multi-layered FBAR sensor in viscous media using transfer matrix method

In this paper, new frequency equations of a shear mode c-axis tilted FBAR (Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonator) sensor operating in viscous liquid media are derived by using the transfer matrix method to predict the frequency shift (FS) induced by fluid viscosity. Top and bottom electrodes of FBAR are considered as a superposition of a pure elastic model and a perfectly conducting model. Employing the perturbation method and developed frequency equations, an approximate FS expression is obtained to study the effects of viscous liquid properties on frequency shifts for the sensor operating in water-glycerol solutions. Numerical results by the developed frequency equations are compared with the published experimental results and those predicted by the traditional Stockbridge-Kanazawa equation, which was originally derived for quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs). Meanwhile, the influence of the electrode material and thickness on FS is also discussed to demonstrate the outperformance of the developed equations over the Stockbridge-Kanazawa equation. Results show that the analytical equations for frequency shift analysis have more potential than the well-known Stockbridge-Kanazawa equation to predict frequency shift characteristics of FBAR sensors in terms of accuracy and efficiency.

Analytical Modeling of AIN-Based Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonator for Hydrogen sulfide Gas detection Based on PiezoMUMPs

Aluminium nitride (AIN) thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) sensor for hydrogen sulfide gas detection has been designed and mathematically modelled using CoventorWare and MATLAB software, respectively. The designed FBAR sensor is based on the PiezoMUMPs fabrication technology. The detection principle of the FBAR gas sensor is based on the resonant frequency changes detection due to the mass change on the top electrode of the sensor induced by the absorbed gas molecules by the nanomaterial deposited on the surface of the top electrode device. Reduced graphene oxide hybrid with copper oxide was considered as the sensitive nanomaterials and their mass loaded was evaluated in the theoretically calculation. The resonant frequency of the shear mode of the FBAR sensor has been calculated theoretically and found to be 9.4524 GHz. The effects of the gas molecules on the resonant frequency have been investigated using a mathematical equation and it shown that the increasing of the gas mass on the sensor surface will reduce the sensor resonant frequency. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the sensor was calculated to be 0.22615 Hz/fg.

Increase of electromechanical coupling coefficient k t 2 in (0001)-oriented AlN films by chromium doping

Piezoelectric AlN films possess high bulk acoustic wave velocity, low acoustic attenuation, and good temperature characteristics. However, AlN film bulk acoustic wave resonators (FBARs) have a relatively small electromechanical coupling coefficient k eff 2. It was recently reported that Cr doping in AlN films increased the piezoelectric constant d 33. The k t 2 of AlN FBARs may thus be enhanced by Cr doping. In this study, we investigated the effect of Cr doping in (0001)-oriented AlN films on k t 2 from the frequency characteristics of high overtone bulk acoustic wave resonators. k t 2 of the Cr-doped AlN films was increased for Cr contents of less than 3%. The maximum k t 2 observed for the Cr0.012Al0.088N film was 5.9%, which was approximately 1.4 times higher than that of pure AlN film (k t 2 = 4.4%).

Dual functionality metamaterial enables ultra-compact, highly sensitive uncooled infrared sensor

Abstract Cointegration and coupling a perfect metamaterial absorber (PMA) together with a film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) in a monolithic fashion is introduced for the purpose of producing ultracompact uncooled infrared sensors of high sensitivity. An optimized ultrathin multilayer stack was implemented to realize the proposed device. It is experimentally demonstrated that the resonance frequency of the FBAR can be used efficiently as a sensor output as it downshifts linearly with the intensity of the incident infrared irradiation. The resulting sensor also achieves a high absorption of 88% for an infrared spectrum centered at a wavelength of 8.2 μm. The structure is compact and can be easily integrated on a CMOS-compatible chip since both the FBAR and PMA utilize and share the same stack of metal and dielectric layers.

High Q Lateral-Field-Excited Bulk Resonator Based on Single-Crystal LiTaO₃ for 5G Wireless Communication

The paper presents the design and fabrication of lateral-field-excited (LFE) resonators based on 42° Y-cut single-crystal LiTaO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> (LT) on silicon dioxide (SiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ). A simple coplanar top electrode is defined to excite the bulk acoustic wave modes in the suspended LT/SiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> structure, and the fabrication process that only involves two lithography steps is more simplified compared to that of commercial film bulk acoustic wave resonators. For a model structure consisting of LT(670 nm)/SiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> (1500 nm) thin film, two types of acoustic modes are both piezoelectrically active in the LT film: the first one is the thickness-shear mode with a resonance frequency of 2.46 GHz, an electromechanical coupling ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$k_{eff}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) of 1.4%, a high quality factor ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) of 1690, and the second one corresponds to longitudinal mode with a resonance frequency of 4.39 GHz, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${k} _{eff}^{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 1.2%, a high <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 1590, which is among the highest reported for piezoelectric MEMS resonators operating at this frequency range. The excellent performance would enable application scenarios including high-resolution sensors, low-phase-noise oscillators, and low-loss, high selectivity filters in the sub-6 GHz range for the fifth-generation (5G) wireless communication.