5-GHz Antisymmetric Mode Acoustic Delay Lines in Lithium Niobate Thin Film

TL;DR

This paper introduces the first 5 GHz antisymmetric mode acoustic delay lines in lithium niobate thin films, demonstrating high-frequency operation with low loss and potential for 5G signal processing.

Contribution

It presents the first analytical modeling, design, and experimental validation of 5 GHz A1 mode acoustic delay lines in lithium niobate thin films, surpassing previous frequency limits.

Findings

Minimum insertion loss of 7.94 dB

Fractional bandwidth around 4%

Delays between 15 ns and 109 ns

Abstract

We present the first group of acoustic delay lines (ADLs) at 5 GHz, using the first-order antisymmetric (A1) mode in Z-cut lithium niobate thin films. The demonstrated ADLs significantly surpass the operation frequency of the previous works with similar feature sizes, because of its simultaneously fast phase velocity, large coupling coefficient, and low-loss. In this work, the propagation characteristics of the A1 mode in lithium niobate is analytically modeled and validated with finite element analysis. The design space of A1 ADLs is then investigated, including both the fundamental design parameters and those introduced from the practical implementation. The implemented ADLs at 5 GHz show a minimum insertion loss of 7.94 dB, an average IL of 9.1 dB, and a fractional bandwidth around 4%, with delays ranging between 15 ns to 109 ns and the center frequencies between 4.5 GHz and 5.25 GHz. The propagation characteristics of A1 mode acoustic waves have also been extracted for the first time. The A1 ADL platform can potentially enable wide-band high-frequency passive signal processing functions for future 5G applications in the sub-6 GHz spectrum bands.