Technological process and resonator design optimization of Ir/LGS high temperature SAW devices
Photolithography together with ion beam etching was used for fabrication of high temperature SAW devices. Ir thin film of 0.3 μm thick was deposited by magnetron sputtering without additional adhesion layers and than Ir film was annealed after electrode patterning in different conditions. The resistivity of magnetron sputtered thick Ir films drops noticeably after annealing. However, this process requires special care in order to avoid delaminating of the film due to developing high stress during such procedures. We have annealed the substrates with Ir films in different regimes and in different gas/vacuum conditions. The results of these studies have shown that annealing in air up to about 500 °C decreases the Ir film resistivity 1.5-2 times. Vacuum annealing did not show much improvement in comparison to open air annealing. Magnetron sputtered thin Ir films have somewhat porous structure allowing oxygen to diffuse from the substrate surface through Ir films. Resonator structures with thick Ir electrodes were prepared and tested. Examples of the resonator structures show very promising properties, such as high conductance and high Q-factor.
One-Port SAW Resonators Using Natural SPUDT Substrates
We discuss the design of one-port surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators using substrates with a partial or total degree of directivity, that is, the natural single-phase unidirectional transducer (N-SPUDT) effect. A general design method gives a resonance when all three frequencies (the required resonance frequency and the Bragg frequencies) are different. A second method has been derived from the resonance condition for a symmetrical substrate. Two further methods incorporate lambda/4 gaps. The capacitance ratio is presented as a function of the phase of the electrode reflection coefficient. The simulations use data for the N-SPUDT orientation of lanthanide. The reflection coefficient for Al electrodes has been calculated from finite element modeling (FEM) analysis. The approximate perturbation theory is found to agree well for small film thickness (h/lambda < 2%). The phase of the reflection coefficient is typically 150deg, not quite the ideal value of 180deg. Measurements on resonators using Al and Cu films are presented.
Unidirectionality in dispersive SAW transducers
Low loss SAW filters can be built making use of unidirectionality and selfmatching of dispersive transducers. The origin of unidirectionality lies in internal reflections between electrodes. The calculated loss level may be as low as 0.08 dB in down chirp double dispersive IDT filters.