Resonant spectrum method to characterize piezoelectric films in composite resonators

In this paper, we present a direct method to characterize a piezoelectric film that is sandwiched with two electrodes and deposited on a substrate to form a four-layer thickness extension mode composite resonator (also known as over-moded resonator). Based on the parallel and series resonant frequency spectra of a composite resonator, the electromechanical coupling factor, the density and the elastic constant of the piezoelectric film can be evaluated directly. Experimental results on samples consisting of ZnO films on fused quartz substrates with different thickness are presented. They show good agreement with theoretical prediction. The mechanical effect of the electrode on the method is investigated, and numerical simulation shows that the effect of the electrodes can be properly corrected by the modified formulae presented in this paper. The effect of mechanical loss in piezoelectric film and in substrate on this method also has been investigated. It is proven that the method is insensitive to the losses.     

Extracting the electromechanical coupling constant of piezoelectric thin film by the high-tone bulk acoustic resonator technique

In this paper, a new approach is proposed to rapidly and accurately measure the electromechanical coupling constant K(t)(2) of thin film piezoelectric material, which is critically important for real-time quality control of the piezoelectric film growth in mass production. An ideal lossy bulk acoustic resonator (LBAR) model is introduced and the theory behind the method is presented. A high-tone bulk acoustic resonator (HBAR) was fabricated on a silicon wafer. The impedance response of the resonator was measured, from which the K(t)(2) of the piezoelectric material was extracted. To illustrate the potential of the proposed technique to extract material properties, two HBAR devices employing AlN as the piezoelectric material were fabricated using an RF sputter system with known good and bad deposition conditions; the extracted K(t)(2) values of the piezoelectric material are compared.     

Measurements of the bulk, C-axis electromechanical coupling constant as a function of AlN film quality

Piezoelectric thin film AlN has great potential for on-chip devices such as thin-film resonator (TFR)-based bandpass filters. The AlN electromechanical coupling constant, K(2), is an important material parameter that determines the maximum possible bandwidth for bandpass filters. Using a previously published extraction technique, the bulk c-axis electromechanical coupling constant was measured as a function of the AlN X-ray diffraction rocking curve [full width at half maximum (FWHM)]. For FWHM values of less than approximately 4 degrees , K (2) saturates at approximately 6.5%, equivalent to the value for epitaxial AlN. For FWHM values >4 degrees , K(2) gradually decreases to approximately 2.5% at a FWHM of 7.5 degrees . These results indicate that the maximum possible bandwidth for TFR-based bandpass filters using polycrystalline AlN is approximately 80 MHz and that, for 60-MHz bandwidth PCS applications, an AlN film quality of >5.5 degrees FWHM is required.     

Electromechanical coupling coefficient k15 of polycrystalline ZnO films with the c-axes lie in the substrate plane

The (1120) textured polycrystalline ZnO films with a high shear mode electromechanical coupling coefficient k15 are obtained by sputter deposition. An over-moded resonator, a layered structure of metal electrode film/(1120) textured ZnO piezoelectric film/metal electrode film/silica glass substrate was used to characterize k15 by a resonant spectrum method. The (1120) textured ZnO piezoelectric films with excellent crystallite c-axis alignment showed an electromechanical coupling coefficient k15 of 0.24. This value was 92% of k15 value in single-crystal (k15 = 0.26).     

Synthesis of textured thin piezoelectric AlN films with a nonzero c-axis mean tilt for the fabrication of shear mode resonators

A method for the deposition of thin piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) films with a nonzero c-axis mean tilt has been developed. The deposition is done in a standard reactive magnetron sputter deposition system without any hardware modifications. In essence, the method consists of a two-stage deposition process. The resulting film has a distinct tilted texture with the mean tilt of the c-axis varying roughly in the interval 28 to 32 degrees over the radius of the wafer excluding a small exclusion zone at the center of the latter. The mean tilt angle distribution over the wafer has a circular symmetry. A membrane-type shear mode thickness-excited thin film bulk acoustic resonator together with a micro-fluidic transport system has been subsequently fabricated using the two stage AlN deposition as well as standard bulk micro machining of Si. The resonator consisted of a 2-microm-thick AlN film with 200nm-thick Al top and bottom electrodes. The resonator was characterized with a network analyzer when operating in both air and water. The shear mode resonance frequency was about 1.6 GHz, the extracted device Q around 350, and the electromechanical coupling kt2 2% when the resonator was operated in air, whereas the latter two dropped down to 150 and 1.8%, respectively, when the resonator was operated in pure water.     

Determination of electromechanical coupling factors of low Q piezoelectric resonators operating in stiffened modes

The electromechanical coupling coefficient is usually determined from the relative spacing of the frequencies of resonance and antiresonance. The conventional formula is derived from equations describing the electrical behavior of an ideal piezoelectric resonator in the absence of losses. In this paper, the influence of the intrinsic material losses on the shift of the resonance/antiresonance frequencies, and therefore on the accuracy of the standard formula to determine k, is analyzed. The exact one-dimensional model of the piezoelectric resonator vibrating in a pure stiffened mode, with a rigorous account of the internal mechanical losses, has been taken as a reference, instead of the frequently used lumped approximate equivalent circuit (Butterworth-Van Dyke). It is shown that the coupling coefficient determined from the frequencies f(s) and f(p) is less than the intrinsic coupling coefficient, and that the error increases for highly attenuating materials with weak electromechanical coupling. The error due to the effect of attenuation, which increases with the decrease of the product Q(m)k of the resonator intrinsic parameters, has been systematically evaluated and plotted for 0.5相似文献   

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_eff²), and the bandwidths are 97, 120, 5.1%, and 24 MHz, respectively.     

低Qm压电振子机电耦合系数的标准计算方法的原理误差分析

压电材料的机电耦合系数通常由谐振及反谐振频率之间的相对间隔确定。常用的ＩＥＥＥ标准计算公式,是由描述理想无损压电振子的电行为方程推导得出的。本文结出了压电材料的固有损耗产生的谐振及反谐振频率的偏移及由此引起的标准公式的误差。代替以往分析时常用的等效电路方法,本文采用把损耗考虑在内的严格的压电振子导纳或阻抗模型。分析结果表明：由测得的谐振子及反谐振频率用标准公式得出的耦合系数小于材料的固有耦合系数;     

Finite element modelling of nanostructured piezoelectric resonators (NAPIERs)

A new modification to the traditional piezoelectric thin film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) and solidly mounted acoustic wave resonator (SMR) is proven to significantly improve their performances. The proposed design involves the surface micro/nano structuring of planar piezoelectric thin films to realize an array of a large number of rod-like structures. In contrast to the plate-like thickness extensional resonance in traditional FBAR and SMR devices, the rod-like structures can be excited in their length extensional resonance, yielding a higher electromechanical coupling factor and effectively eliminating the spurious resonances from lateral modes of vibration. The designs have been investigated by two and three-dimensional finite element analyses and one-dimensional transmissionline modelling. The results show that significant increases in the electromechanical coupling factor of ca. 40% can be achieved by using the rod-like length extensional resonances as compared with the plate-like thickness extensional resonances in traditional devices. Simulations show that rod width-to-thickness aspect ratios of less than 0.5 could result in an electromechanical coupling factor (k2eff) of over 10% for a zinc oxide device, compared with approximately 7% for a conventional design.     

A method of "weak resonance" for quality factor and coupling coefficient measurement in piezoelectrics

In the absolute-immittance spectrum of a piezoelectric resonator (PR), if the relative resonance-antiresonance frequency interval of a high-intensity resonance is basically determined by the coefficient of electromechanical coupling (CEMC), the relative resonance-antiresonance frequency interval of a low-intensity resonance with the resonance-antiresonance attenuation less than 15 dB, regardless of the reason, is determined by the quality factor Q of the resonance, and its intensity is proportional to the CEMC. The technique for the quality factor and CEMC determination based on the "weak resonance" (WR) concept has been formulated and then applied to low-Q and/or low-CEMC piezoelectrics, including the initial stage of piezoceramics polarization, and to piezotransducers under electrical or mechanical loading with maximum efficiency. The WR method allows one to determine the quality factor on PRs under specific conditions, such as arbitrary PR shape resulting to a broken frequency spectrum; PRs with an extremely large or extremely low electrical capacitance; at high-order PR harmonics; electrodeless piezoelements under mechanically contactless electrical excitation; determining the local thickness-mode material quality factor value and its distribution along the surface of a thin electrodeless piezoplate--all this where the traditional methods show a poor performance or do not work at all.     

AlN薄膜体声波谐振器研究

采用一维Mason模型,研究了体声波谐振器的频率特性,探讨了压电薄膜AlN和上电极膜厚对谐振频率的影响,压电参数d33及压电薄膜与电极的厚度比率对机电耦合系数的影响,同时研究了谐振区域的面积和声能在衬底中的损耗对品质因数的影响.测量的体声波谐振器频率特性曲线与模拟结果吻合的较好.     

Characterization of electromechanical coupling coefficients of piezoelectric films using composite resonators

By analyzing the resonance frequency spectrum of a composite resonator consisting of a piezoelectric ceramic film deposited on a substrate plate, the thickness extensional mode electromechanical coupling coefficient of the film, k(t)(2), can be directly calculated from the effective coupling factor values, k(eff )(2), for two special modes of the resonator. The effects of the mechanical loss in the piezoelectric films on the measurement are investigated by numerical simulation, and some guidelines for improving the accuracy of the k(t)(2) measurement are reported.     

Theoretical investigation of surface acoustic wave in the new, three-layered structure: ZnO/AlN/diamond

The new layered structure, ZnO/AlN/diamond, for surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices is investigated for gigahertz-band applications. This structure combines the advantages of both piezoelectric materials, with a high electromechanical coupling coefficient (K2) of ZnO and high acoustic velocity of AlN. Theoretical results show that Rayleigh mode SAWs with large phase velocities up to 12,200 m/s and large K2 from 1 to 3% were generated with this new structure.     

铌掺杂PMS-PZ-PT三元系压电陶瓷温度稳定性研究

研究了软性Nb₂O₅掺杂对PMS-PZ-PT三元系压电陶瓷温度稳定性能的影响.实验结果表明,适量的掺杂不仅能优化体系的压电性能,而且改善了体系的温度稳定性.改性后的三元系陶瓷频移小,机电耦合系数K₃₁的温度稳定性较好,同时压电常数d₃₁温度稳定性也得到了改善,能满足超声马达等器件对压电陶瓷材料性能的要求.     

High-Q AlN/SiO2 symmetric composite thin film bulk acoustic wave resonators

High-Q, bulk acoustic wave composite resonators based on a symmetric layer sequence of SiO₂-AlN-SiO₂ sandwiched between electrodes have been developed. Acoustic isolation was achieved by means of deep silicon etching to obtain membrane type thin film bulk acoustic wave resonators (TFBARs). Three different device versions were investigated. The SiO₂ film thicknesses were varied (0 nm, 70 nm, 310 nm, and 770 nm) while the piezoelectric AlN film had a constant thickness of 1.2 μm. The sputter-deposited AlN film grown on the amorphous, sputter-deposited SiO₂ layer exhibited a d_33,f of 4.0 pm/V. Experimental results of quality factors (Q) and coupling coefficients (k_t²) are in agreement with finite element calculations. A Q of 2000 is observed for the first harmonic of the 310 nm oxide devices. The most intense resonance of the 770 nm oxide device is the third harmonic reaching Q factors of 1450. The temperature drift reveals the impact of the SiO₂ layers, which is more pronounced on the first harmonic, reducing the TCF to 4 ppm/K for the 3rd harmonic of the 310 nm oxide devices.     

Advances in high-Q piezoelectric resonator materials and devices

In order to compare piezoelectric materials and devices, an intrinsic parameter, the motional time constant tau(1)/sup (m/)=(omega/sub m/Q/sub m/)(-1) for a particular mode m is employed. The use of tau(1)/sup (m/) follows from the accommodation of acoustic loss in the elastic compliance/stiffness and the establishment of material coefficients that are elements of viscosity matrices. Alternative and fully equivalent definitions of tau(1) are given based on the RC time constant derived from the equivalent circuit representation of a crystal resonator, acoustic attenuation, logarithmic decrement, and viscosity or damping. For quartz devices, the variation of tau(1): for any simple thickness mode, for the Y'X shear mode for rotated Y-cuts, and with diameter-thickness ratio for AT-cuts is discussed. Other factors such as mounting loss and loss caused by crystal inhomogeneities (dislocations, defect positions in the resonator, and impurity migration under vibrational stress) are briefly considered with quartz devices as the model. Some new piezoelectric materials/material constants/devices are reviewed and their motional time constants are compared. A physical parameter, composed of acoustic velocity, piezoelectric coupling, and tau(1) is identified which aids in understanding the maximum frequency limitations of plate resonators.     

Evaluation of the material parameters of piezoelectric materials byvarious methods

The elastic, dielectric and piezoelectric constants of four piezoelectric materials, including polyvinylidene fluoride, vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene copolymer, PZT/epoxy 1-3 composite, and lead metaniobate ceramic, have been evaluated from the impedance data using five different methods. A method described in ANSI/IEEE Std. 176-1987, though based on formulae derived for loss-less materials, is found to be applicable to materials with moderate loss. However, for high-loss materials such as polyvinylidene fluoride, the electromechanical coupling constant (κ_t) obtained by the method of Std. 176 is substantially higher than the actual value. Calculations based on a piezoelectric resonance analysis program (PRAP) combine the best features of two earlier methods. In addition to the impedance at the parallel resonance frequency, impedances at two other frequencies are required for calculation. The PRAP method gives quite accurate material parameters regardless of the magnitude of the loss, but the parameters (including κ_t) vary by as much as 15% depending on the choice of data. In the nonlinear regression method described in the present work, all the impedance data points around the resonance are least-squares fitted to the theoretical expression for the impedance. Besides the advantage of requiring no arbitrary choice of data, the nonlinear regression method can readily take account of the frequency dependence of the dielectric constant     

丝网印刷技术制备高性能织构化K0.45Na0.55NbO3陶瓷（英文）

以片状NaNbO3晶粒为模板,以K4CuNb8O23(KCN)为助烧剂,通过丝网印刷技术制备出晶粒定向的K0.45Na0.55NbO3(KNN)无铅压电陶瓷.片状的NaNbO3模板是以铋层状Bi2.5Na3.5Nb5O18为前驱物,通过熔盐拓扑微观反应制得.织构化(K0.45Na0.55)NbO3陶瓷的晶粒定向程度达到95%,其定向晶粒沿丝网印刷方向平行排列,块体的相对密度达到92%.在平行和垂直于丝网印刷方向的两个面上,织构化(K0.45Na0.55)NbO3陶瓷表现出不同的定向程度,且其介电、铁电和压电性能均明显优于无织构化陶瓷.介电常数εr、压电系数d33、机电耦合系数kp在平行于丝网印刷方向的表面上,分别提高了75%、44%、42%;在垂直于丝网印刷方向的表面上分别提高了35%、30%、35%.相对于目前其它的晶粒定向技术,丝网印刷方法既简单又高效.     

Synthesis of C-axis-oriented AlN thin films on high-conducting layers: Al, Mo, Ti, TiN, and Ni

Thin piezoelectric polycrystalline films such as AlN, ZnO, etc., are of great interest for the fabrication of thin film bulk/surface acoustic resonators (TFBARs or TFSARs). It is well-known that the degree of c-axis orientation of the thin films correlates directly with the electromechanical coupling. However, the degree of c-axis orientation of the piezoelectric film is, in turn, influenced by other parameters such as the structure of the substrate material, the matter of whether the c-axis is up or down (polarity), and the growth parameters used. The correlation of these three aspects with the electromechanical coupling of the AlN-thin films, is studied here. Thin AlN films, prepared in a magnetron sputtering system, have been deposited onto thin Al, Mo, Ni, Ti, and TiN films. Such thin high-conducting layers are used to form the bottom electrode of TFBAR devices as well as to define a short-circuiting plane in TFSAR devices. In both cases, they serve as a substrate for the growth of the piezoelectric film. It has been found that the degree of orientation and the surface roughness of the bottom metal layer significantly affects the texture of the AlN films, and hence its electroacoustic properties. For this reason, the surface morphology and texture of the metal layers and their influence on the growth of AlN on them has been systematically studied. Finally, FBARs with both Al and Ti electrodes have been fabricated and evaluated electroacoustically.     

Experimental investigation of acoustic substrate losses in 1850-MHz thin film BAW resonators

After optimizing for electromechanical coupling coefficient K², the main performance improvement in the thin film bulk acoustic wave resonators and filters can be achieved by improving the Q value, i.e., minimizing the losses. In Braggreflector- based solidly mounted resonator technology, a significant improvement of Q has been achieved by optimizing the reflector not only for longitudinal wave, the intended operation mode, but also for shear waves. We have investigated the remaining acoustic radiation losses to the substrate in so-optimized 1850-MHz AlN resonators by removing the substrate underneath the resonators and comparing the devices with and without substrate by electrical characterization before and after the substrate removal. Several methods to extract Q-values of the resonators are compared. Changes caused by substrate removal are observed in resonator behavior, but no significant improvement in Q-values can be confirmed. Loss mechanisms other than substrate leakage are concluded to dominate the resonator Q-value. Difficulties of detecting small changes in the Q-values of the resonators are also discussed.