Hetero Acoustic Layer Surface Acoustic Wave Resonator Composed of LiNbO3 and Quartz.

In this work, a shear-horizontal (SH) mode surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator based on LiNbO3 (LN)/Quartz (Qz) hetero acoustic layer (HAL) structure was studied by simulation and experiment. By this HAL structure, the displacement and electric displacement are well confined in the piezoelectric layer. A lower mechanical loss of Qz than that of lossy amorphous SiO2 further enhances the quality ( Q ) factor. In addition, a negative temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) of LN is compensated by selecting the crystalline orientation of Qz with a positive TCF. According to simulation results, the Euler angles of (0°, 101°, and 0°) and the normalized thickness of 0.2-0.3 λ (wavelength) for LN are selected to obtain a higher impedance ratio ( Z -ratio) and bandwidth (BW). The Euler angles of (0°, 160°, and 90°) for Qz are selected to obtain the positive maximum TCF. The fabricated resonator exhibits a Z -ratio of 95 dB and a BW of 15.9% in the 700 MHz range. The fit figure of merit (FoM) reaches 410, which is the best level ever reported for an LN-based resonator. The TCF of the resonator is -77 ppm/°C at anti-resonance frequency. A group of resonators composed of LN and LN/Qz with thin and thick electrodes were fabricated to further illustrate the good performance of LN/Qz. The LN/Qz HAL SAW resonator demonstrated in this work exhibits a high Z -ratio, low TCF, and wideband, which has the potential for high-performance wideband filters with steep passband and good temperature characteristics.

Experimental Study of Transverse Mode Suppression on Wideband Hetero Acoustic Layer Surface Acoustic Wave Resonator.

Transverse mode suppression is a great challenge for high-performance surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators. Conventional methods work well on narrowband resonators, but their performances on wideband resonator have not been demonstrated. In this article, we give an in-depth study on the transverse mode suppression of wideband resonators using 11° YX-LiNbO3 (LN)/70 °Y90°X -quartz (Qz) hetero acoustic layer structure as a platform. Two groups of design, including new dummy electrode and zigzag shape apodization, are proposed. The measured results show that the shape of the dummy electrode is not the dominant factor to affect the transverse mode. The proposed zigzag shape apodization can effectively suppress the transverse, at the same time maintain the quality ( Q ) factor at the same level with the normal type. Additionally, stronger suppression ability can be realized with a tiny tradeoff of Q -factor.

Surface Acoustic Wave Resonators With Hetero Acoustic Layer (HAL) Structure Using Lithium Tantalate and Quartz.

This article reports a new concept of surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) resonator, which uses shear horizontal (SH) wave confined in a thin LiTaO3 (LT) layer supported by a quartz (Qz) substrate. The LT layer is 35-50°YX LT, and the quartz substrate is 35-60°Y90°X Qz. A negative temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) of the SH SAW in the LT layer is compensated by the quartz substrate, which shows a wide range of positive TCF depending on the crystalline orientation. Excellent TCFs of 2 and -10 ppm/°C were measured for the series and parallel resonance frequencies, respectively. The strong confinement of the SH SAW in the LT layer results in the best level of resonance characteristics ever reported. The measured impedance ratio reached 84 dB. On the other hand, spurious waves other than the SH SAW are not confined in the LT layer due to the unique properties of quartz, which results in spurious-free characteristics throughout a wide frequency range.

High-Frequency Resonator Using A1 Lamb Wave Mode in LiTaO3 Plate.

Acoustic wave devices utilizing plate waves in thin lithium tantalate (LiTaO3) have the potential of achieving high resonance frequency with a suitable electromechanical coupling factor and a relatively small temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF). The influence of Euler angle and plate thickness on the characteristics of plate waves has been investigated. High-frequency resonators using first antisymmetric Lamb wave mode (A1) in (0°, 42°, 0°) LiTaO3 thin plates have been fabricated and optimized. The resonance frequency is as high as 5 GHz, with a relative bandwidth of 7.3% and an impedance ratio of 72 dB. Finally, the TCF of (0°, 42°, 0°) LiTaO3 has been evaluated. Therefore, it is proved that A1 Lamb wave mode propagating in LiTaO3 at a Euler angle close to (0°, 42°, 0°) is suitable for high-frequency devices.

Investigation of Material Constants of CaTiO3 Doped (K,Na)NbO3 Film by MEMS-Based Test Elements.

A CaTiO3-doped (K,Na)NbO3 (KNN-CT) film is a lead-free piezoelectric film that is expected to substitute Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) film in piezoelectric micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS). However, the full set of the material constants (elastic constants, piezoelectric constants and dielectric constants) of the KNN-CT film have not been reported yet. In this study, all the material constants of a sputter-deposited blanket KNN-CT film were investigated by the resonance responses of MEMS-based piezoelectric resonators and the phase velocities of leaky Lamb waves on a self-suspended membrane. The phase velocities measured by a line-focus-beam ultrasonic material characterization (LFB-UMC) system at different frequencies were fitted with theoretical ones, which were calculated from the material constants, including fitting parameters. A genetic algorithm was used to find the best-fitting parameters. All the material constants were then calculated. Although some problems arising from the film quality and the nature of deliquescence are observed, all the material constants were obtained exhibiting accuracy within 16 m/s in the phase velocity of leaky Lamb wave.

Ultra-wideband ladder filter using SH(0) plate wave in thin LiNbO(3) plate and its application to tunable filter.

A cognitive radio terminal using vacant frequency bands of digital TV (DTV) channels, i.e., TV white space, strongly requires a compact tunable filter covering a wide frequency range of the DTV band (470 to 710 MHz in Japan). In this study, a T-type ladder filter using ultra-wideband shear horizontal mode plate wave resonators was fabricated, and a low peak insertion loss of 0.8 dB and an ultra-large 6 dB bandwidth of 240 MHz (41%) were measured in the DTV band. In addition, bandpass filters with different center frequencies of 502 and 653 MHz at 6 dB attenuation were numerically synthesized based on the same T-type ladder filter in conjunction with band rejection filters with different frequencies. The results suggest that the combination of the wideband T-type ladder filter and the band rejection filters connected with variable capacitors enables a tunable filter with large tunability of frequency and bandwidth as well as large rejection at the adjacent channels of an available TV white space.

Tunable filters using wideband elastic resonators.

Currently, an ultra-wideband resonator is greatly needed to realize a tunable filter with a wide tunable range, because mobile phones with multiple bands and cognitive radio systems require such tunable filters to simplify their circuits. Although tunable filters have been studied using SAW resonators, their tunable range was insufficient for the filters even when wideband SAW resonators with a bandwidth of 17% were used. Therefore, the fabrication of wider-bandwidth resonators has been attempted with the goal of realizing tunable filters with wide tunable ranges. In this study, an SH0- mode plate wave resonator in a 27.5°YX-LiNbO3 plate with an ultra-wide bandwidth of 29.1%, a high impedance ratio of 98 dB, and a high Q (Q(r) = 700 and Q(a) = 720) was realized. Two types of tunable filters were constructed using such SH0-mode resonators and capacitors. As a result, tunable ranges (bands) of 13% to 19% were obtained. The possibility of applying the SH0-mode resonator in the high-frequency gigahertz range is discussed.

High-frequency Lamb wave device composed of MEMS structure using LiNbO3 thin film and air gap.

High-frequency devices operating at 3 GHz or higher are required, for instance, for future 4th generation mobile phone systems in Japan. Using a substrate with a high acoustic velocity is one method to realize a high-frequency acoustic or elastic device. A Lamb wave has a high velocity when the substrate thickness is thin. To realize a high-frequency device operating at 3 GHz or higher using a Lamb wave, a very thin (less than 0.5 µm thick) single-crystal plate must be used. It is difficult to fabricate such a very thin single crystal plate. The authors have attempted to use a c-axis orientated epitaxial LiNbO(3) thin film deposited by a chemical vapor deposition system (CVD) instead of using a thin LiNbO(3) single crystal plate. Lamb wave resonators composed of a interdigital transducer (IDT)/the LiNbO(3) film/air gap/base substrate structure like micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) transducers were fabricated. These resonators have shown a high frequency of 4.5 and 6.3 GHz, which correspond to very high acoustic velocities of 14,000 and 12,500 m/s, respectively, have excellent characteristics such as a ratio of resonant and antiresonant impedance of 52 and 38 dB and a wide band of 7.2% and 3.7%, respectively, and do not have spurious responses caused by the 0th modes of shear horizontal (SH(0)) and symmetric (S(0)) modes.

Small and low-loss IF SAW filters using zinc oxide film on quartz substrate.

It was previously reported that a Rayleigh wave propagating on a zinc oxide film (ZnO)/ST-cut 35 degrees X propagation quartz substrate structure has the characteristics of an excellent temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) and a large electromechanical coupling factor k(s). This substrate was applied to various intermediate-frequency (IF) stage filters. During the filter development, it was clarified that a spurious response due to the Love wave was generated. In this study, a new quartz substrate has been developed with a specific cut and propagation angle, that has the same values of the TCF and the coupling factor as the above-mentioned ones. In addition, it does not have the spurious response due to the Love wave. The combination of this specific-cut-angle quartz and ZnO film has been applied to IF filters for wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) and narrow-band CDMA (N-CDMA) systems. The insertion losses of their IF filters were 3-5 dB better and their TCF was superior (deltaf/f = 0.37 ppm/degrees C: one-third) compared with the conventional surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters.

Resonator filters using shear horizontal-type leaky surface acoustic wave consisting of heavy-metal electrode and quartz substrate.

The authors have succeeded in exciting a new type of leaky surface acoustic wave (LSAW) having only a shear horizontal (SH) component that has a large electromechanical coupling factor, a large reflection coefficient, and excellent temperature stability, by combining interdigital transducers (IDTs) and reflectors made of heavy-metal films such as gold (Au), tantalum (Ta), and tungsten (W) on the ST-cut 90 degrees X propagation (direction perpendicular to the X-axis) quartz substrate. This LSAW does not have a propagation decay. The square of the electromechanical coupling factor is 2.1-2.7 times larger than, the reflection coefficient is 30 times larger than, and the temperature characteristic is the same as those of a Rayleigh wave on an ST-cut X propagation quartz substrate. The authors applied this SH LSAW to resonators and resonator filters. As a result, we succeeded in developing the low loss and very small-sized resonators and resonator filters (1/5-1/4 of conventional device sizes) with IDTs with a small number of finger pairs and very small reflectors, for the first time.

Very small IF resonator filters using reflection of shear horizontal wave at free edges of substrate.

A shear horizontal (SH) wave has the characteristic of complete reflection at the free edges of a substrate with a large dielectric constant. A conventional surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator filter requires reflectors consisting of numerous grating fingers on both sides of interdigital transducers (IDTs). On the contrary, it is considered that small-sized and low loss resonator filters without reflectors consisting of grating fingers can be realized by exploiting this characteristic of the SH wave or the Bleustein-Gulyaev-Shimizu (BGS) wave. There are two types of resonator filters: transversely coupled and longitudinally coupled. No transversely coupled filters (neither conventional nor edge-reflection) using the SH wave on a single-crystal substrate have been realized until now, because two transverse modes (symmetrical and asymmetrical modes) are not easily coupled. However, the authors have realized small low loss transversely coupled resonator filters in the range of 25 to 52 MHz using edge reflections of the BGS wave on piezoelectric ceramic (PZT: Pb(Zr,Ti)O3) substrates for the first time by developing methods by which the two transverse modes could be coupled. On the other hand, longitudinally coupled resonator filters using edge reflection of the SH or BGS wave always have large spurious responses because of the even modes in the out-of-band range, because the frequencies of even modes do not coincide with the nulls of the frequency spectra of the IDTs. Consequently, longitudinally coupled resonator filters using the edge reflection of the SH wave have not been realized. By developing a method of reducing the spurious responses without increasing of the insertion loss, the authors have realized small low loss longitudinally coupled resonator filters in the range of 40 to 190 MHz using edge reflection of BGS or SH waves on PZT or 36 degrees-rotated-Y X-propagation LiTaO3 substrates for the first time. Despite being intermediate frequency (IF) filters, their package (3 x 3 x 1.03 mm3) sizes are as small as those of radio frequency (RF) SAW filters.