Aluminum Nitride Two-Dimensional-Resonant-Rods

TL;DR

This paper introduces Two-Dimensional-Resonant-Rods (2DRRs), a novel AlN-based RF resonator with high electromechanical coupling and lithographic tunability, addressing challenges in manufacturing filters for IoT and 5G applications.

Contribution

The work presents a new class of AlN resonators, 2DRRs, with unique modal features enabling high kt2 and frequency tunability, verified through analytical, FE, and experimental results.

Findings

Achieved kt2 exceeding 7.4% in fabricated 2DRRs

Demonstrated significant lithographic frequency tunability

Revealed relaxed lithographic resolution requirements

Abstract

In the last decades, Bulk-Acoustic-Wave (BAW) filters have been essential components of 1G-to-4G radios. These devices rely on the high electromechanical coupling coefficient (kt2~7%), attained by Aluminum Nitride (AlN) Film-Bulk-Acoustic-Resonators (FBARs), to achieve a wideband and low-loss frequency response. As the resonance frequency of FBARs is set by their thickness, the integration of multiple FBARs, to form filters, can only be attained through the adoption of frequency tuning fabrication steps, such as mass loading or trimming. However, as the ability to reliably control these steps significantly decays for thinner FBARs, manufacturing FBARs-based filters, addressing the needs of emerging IoT and 5G high-frequency applications, is becoming more and more challenging. Consequently, there is a quest for new acoustic resonant components, simultaneously exhibiting high kt2 and a lithographic frequency tunability. In this work, a novel class of AlN resonators is presented. These radio-frequency devices, labelled as Two-Dimensional-Resonant-Rods (2DRRs), exploit, for the first time, the unconventional acoustic behavior exhibited by a forest of locally resonant rods, built in the body of a profiled AlN layer that is sandwiched between a bottom un-patterned metal plate and a top metallic grating. 2DRRs exhibit unexplored modal features that make them able to achieve high kt2, a significant lithographic frequency tunability and a relaxed lithographic resolution, while relying on an optimal AlN crystalline orientation. The operation of 2DRRs is discussed, in this work, by means of analytical and finite-element (FE) investigations. The measured performance of the first fabricated 2DRR, showing a kt2 in excess of 7.4%, are also reported.