Silicon compatible acoustic wave resonators: design, fabrication and performance
Continuous advancement in wireless technology and silicon microfabrication has fueled exciting growth in wireless products. The bulky size of discrete vibrating mechanical devices such as quartz crystals and surface acoustic wave resonators impedes the ultimate miniaturization of single-chip tran...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IIUM Press
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/41610/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/41610/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/41610/1/437-2144-2-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | Continuous advancement in wireless technology and silicon
microfabrication has fueled exciting growth in wireless products. The bulky size of
discrete vibrating mechanical devices such as quartz crystals and surface acoustic wave
resonators impedes the ultimate miniaturization of single-chip transceivers. Fabrication
of acoustic wave resonators on silicon allows complete integration of a resonator with its
accompanying circuitry. Integration leads to enhanced performance, better functionality
with reduced cost at large volume production. This paper compiles the state-of-the-art
technology of silicon compatible acoustic resonators, which can be integrated with
interface circuitry. Typical acoustic wave resonators are surface acoustic wave (SAW)
and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators. Performance of the resonator is measured in
terms of quality factor, resonance frequency and insertion loss. Selection of appropriate
piezoelectric material is significant to ensure sufficient electromechanical coupling
coefficient is produced to reduce the insertion loss. The insulating passive SiO2 layer acts
as a low loss material and aims to increase the quality factor and temperature stability of
the design. The integration technique also is influenced by the fabrication process and
packaging. Packageless structure using AlN as the additional isolation layer is proposed
to protect the SAW device from the environment for high reliability. Advancement in
miniaturization technology of silicon compatible acoustic wave resonators to realize a
single chip transceiver system is still needed |
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