The above and other aspects of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein;
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawing figures.
In the following description, same drawing reference numerals are used for the same elements even in different drawings. The matters defined in the description such as a detailed construction and elements are only provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of the invention. Thus, it is apparent that the present invention can be carried out without those defined matters. Also, well-known functions or constructions are not described in detail since they would obscure the invention in unnecessary detail.
Referring to
Referring to
The piezoelectric substrate 10 can be made of a specific single crystal piezoelectric substance, for example, LiTaO3 or LiNbO3.
The first filter includes an FBAR 20. The FBAR 20 has an air gap 21 formed on the upper surface of the piezoelectric substrate 10, a resonant part 22 formed on the upper surface of the air gap 21, and a pair of electrode pads 23 and 24.
The air gap 21 is formed to have a specific depth extending downwardly from the upper surface of the piezoelectric substrate 10. The air gap 21 is formed under the resonant part 22. The air gap 21 can be created by forming a sacrificial layer to have a specific depth from the upper surface of the piezoelectric substrate 10 and then removing the sacrificial layer.
The resonant part 22 has a first electrode 22a, a piezoelectric film 22b, and a second electrode 22c, which are sequentially deposited so as to be located on the upper portion of the air gap 21.
The resonant part 22 filters a RF signal using a piezoelectric effect of the piezoelectric film 22b. That is, the RF signal applied from the second electrode 22c is output toward the first electrode 22a through the resonant part 22. In this instance, since the resonant part 22 has a constant resonant frequency according to vibration generated by the piezoelectric film 22b, only the input RF signal which corresponds to the resonant frequency of the resonance part 22, is output. In this exemplary embodiment, the resonant part 22 can be used to filter a signal suitable for the PCS using a GHz band.
The resonant part 22 is deposited on and supported by the piezoelectric substrate 10 in such a way that the first electrode 22a covers a portion of the air gap 21. The piezoelectric film 22b is deposited on and supported by the piezoelectric substrate 10 so as to cover the first electrode 22a and the remaining upper surface of the air gap 21. The second electrode 22c is deposited and supported to cover the upper portion of the piezoelectric film 22b.
The first and second electrodes 22a and 22b are made of a common conductive substance such as metal. More specifically, the first and second electrodes 22a and 22b may be made of Al, W, Au, Pt, Ni, Ti, Cr, Pd, or Mo.
The piezoelectric film 22b serves to cause a piezoelectric effect which converts electric energy into mechanical energy of an acoustic wave type, as described above. AlN or ZnO may be used as a piezoelectric substance to form the piezoelectric film 22b.
Each of the electrode pads 23 and 24 is deposited on the upper portions of the first and second electrodes 22a and 22c to have a specific thickness. The electrode pads 23 and 24 may be made of the same conductive substance as that of the first and second electrodes 22a and 22c. Reference numeral 25 in
The second filter includes an SAW device 30 having a good characteristic in the 900 MHz band which is used for a cellular phone. The SAW device 30 includes a SAW device 31 and a SAW electrode pad 32, which are formed on the piezoelectric substrate 10.
The SAW device 31 can be formed in such a way that a comb-like electrode (InterDigital Transducer; IDT) surface faces up on the upper surface of the piezoelectric substrate 10. The SAW device 31 may be formed by depositing a metal substance on the piezoelectric substrate 10 in a desired pattern. In this exemplary embodiment, the SAW device 31 is made of the same substance as that of the first electrode 22a, and is formed simultaneously with the first electrode 22a. Therefore, the SAW device 31 may be made of Al, W, Au, Pt, Ni, Ti, Cr, Pd, or Mo.
The SAW electrode pad 32 is deposited on the upper surface of the piezoelectric substrate 10 in such a way that it is connected to the SAW device 31. The SAW electrode pad 32 is made of the same substance as that of the electrode pads 23 and 24 of the FBAR 20, and is formed simultaneous with the electrode pads 23 and 24. The multi-band filter module according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes the construction in which the FBAR 20 and the SAW device 30 are concurrently formed on single piezoelectric substrate 10. Consequently, it can simplify the process of fabricating the multi-band filter module, and downsize and integrate the construction of the filter module.
The process of fabricating the multi-band filter module according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail.
A wafer level packaging method and a fabricating process of the multi-band filter module shown in
As shown in
Next, as shown in
As shown in
Then, as shown in
As shown in
Next, the sacrificial layer 11 is removed so that the air gap 21 is formed under the resonant part 22 with the first electrode 22a, the piezoelectric film 22b, and the second electric electrode 22c deposited thereon. With the fabricating process, since the FBAR 20 and the SAW device 30 are concurrently formed on the same piezoelectric substrate 10, the fabricating process can be simplified, and filters having different bands can be downsized and integrated.
The multi-band filter module can be subjected to the wafer level packaging through a series of processes, as shown in
In
The packaging cap 200 includes a cap wafer 210, a via electrode 220 penetrating through the cap wafer 210, and coupling pads 240 and 250 each provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the cap wafer 210. The coupling pads 240 and 250 are connected to the electrode 220. The second sealing lines 43 and 44 are deposited and connected to the lower connecting pad 250.
By connecting the packaging cap 200 configured as described above with the upper portion of the filter module 100, the FBAR 20 and the SAW device 30 can be packaged as one package. Since the first and second sealing lines 41 and 42; 43 and 44 are made of a conductive substance, the filter module 100 is electrically connected to the coupling pad 240 provided on the upper portion of the cap wafer 210.
In the construction of the filter module configured as described above, a duplexer can be implemented by properly combining a plurality of the FBARs 20 or the SAW devices 30 in parallel or series.
The packaging cap 200 does not characterize the present invention. The construction of a prior packaging cap for the wafer level packaging can be coupled to the filter module 100 of the present invention to package the same.
Although not shown, the SAW device 30 and the FBAR 20 are packaged into one chip through the same wafer level packaging. In case a trimming circuit is required to improve characteristics of the SAW device and FBAR, a trimming circuit can be integrated on the piezoelectric substrate 10.
As described above, according to the present invention, the multi-band filter can be modularized by integrating the SAE device and the FBAR onto one substrate. Therefore, since some steps are partially concurrently performed in the process of fabricating the SAW device and the FBAR, the process can be simplified to reduce manufacturing cost.
In addition, since the SAW device and the FBAR are unitarily packaged, the downsized and integrated filter module can be provided.
Additional connection is not required by directly fabricating the SAW and the FBAR on the piezoelectric substrate, thereby improving the signal loss characteristic the reliability.
While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2006-0071079 | Jul 2006 | KR | national |