The present invention generally relates to Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) structures and, more particularly to, a cavity formation and manufacturing process that simplifies the cavity formation underneath the Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator (FBAR) structure, and eliminates the need of substrate trench etching, subsequent planarization processes, micro-via formation, sacrificial layer and planarized support layer deposition and subsequent removal, and large area planar wafer bonding process.
Piezoelectric thin film Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) structures are typically used to manufacture Bulk Acoustic Resonators (BAR) for filter and duplexer in microwave applications. Two basic BAW structures have developed over the years, namely FBAR (Film BAR) and SMBAR (Solidly Mounted BAR). FBAR and SMBAR both have their own pros and cons, but overall, the FBAR has been gaining more and more market share in today's microwave communication applications. The FBAR structure is a cavity-based structure wherein the manufacturing of it has been mainly based on etching a trench on the silicon substrate, combined with surface planarization with Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,818 discloses a prior art method of forming a FBAR structure. In this patent, as may be seen in
In recent years there were additional BAW resonator related development works toward using single crystal piezoelectric film with copper pillar, solder bump, perimeter structure, and micro-vias as disclosed in “RESONANCE CIRCUIT WITH A SINGLE CRYSTAL CAPACITOR DIELECTRIC MATERIAL”, U.S. Pat. No. 9,673,384 B2, issued on Jun. 6, 2017; “SINGLE CRYSTAL ACOUSTIC RESONATOR AND BULK ACOUSTIC WAVE FILTER”, U.S. Pat. No. 9,912,314132, issued on Mar. 6, 2018; “STRUCTURE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE FOR ACOUSTIC RESONATOR OR FILTER DEVICES USING IMPROVED FABRICATION CONDITIONS AND PERIMETER STRUCTURE MODIFICATIONS”, U.S. Pat. No. 10,110,190 B2, issued on Oct. 23, 2018; and “METHOD OF MANUFACTURE FOR SINGLE CRYSTAL ACOUSTIC RESONATOR DEVICES USING MICRO-VIAS”, U.S. Pat. No. 10,217,930 B1, issued on Feb. 26, 2019.
Even work directed towards piezoelectric film transfer from one substrate to another to form the preferred cavity structure has been done as disclosed in “PIEZOELECTRIC FILM TRANSFER FOR ACOUSTIC RESONATORS AND FILTERS”, US 2015/0033520 A1, published on Feb. 5, 2015 and “PIEZOELECTRIC ACOUSTIC RESONATOR MANUFACTURED WITH PIEZOELECTRIC THIN FILM TRANSFER PROCESS”, US 2018/0054176 A1, published on Feb. 22, 2018. The advantage of using single crystal piezoelectric thin film has not shown significant improvement in resonator performance compares to plasma sputtered poly crystalline thin film.
Referring to
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a device and method that overcome the above problems.
In accordance with one embodiment, a method for forming Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) structure is disclosed. The method comprises: forming a piezoelectric material on a first substrate; applying a first metal layer on a top surface of the piezoelectric material; forming a metal pattern on a second substrate, the metal pattern forming a cavity pattern between raised areas of the metal pattern; attaching the first metal layer to a top area of the metal pattern forming a plurality of cavity areas; removing the first substrate; and applying a second metal layer on a bottom surface of the piezoelectric material.
In accordance with one embodiment, a method for forming Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) structure is disclosed. The method comprises: forming a piezoelectric material on a first substrate; applying a first metal layer on a top surface of the piezoelectric material; forming a metal pattern on a second substrate, the metal pattern forming a cavity pattern between raised areas of the metal pattern; attaching the first metal layer to a top area of the metal pattern forming a plurality of cavity areas; removing the first substrate; applying a second metal layer on a bottom surface of the piezoelectric material; removing portions of the second metal layer and the piezoelectric material to form a plurality of BAW structures, each of the plurality of BAW structures having one of the plurality of cavity areas; and forming interconnects on at least one of the plurality of BAW structures.
In accordance with one embodiment, a method for forming Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) structure is disclosed. The method comprises: forming a piezoelectric material on a first substrate; applying a first metal layer on a top surface of the piezoelectric material; forming a metal pattern on a second substrate, the metal pattern forming a cavity pattern between raised areas of the metal pattern; etching into the first substrate in the cavity pattern deepening at least one of the plurality of cavity areas; attaching the first metal layer to a top area of the metal pattern forming a plurality of cavity areas; removing the first substrate; applying a second metal layer on a bottom surface of the piezoelectric material; removing portions of the second metal layer and the piezoelectric material to form a plurality of BAW structures, each of the plurality of BAW structures having one of the plurality of cavity areas; forming interconnects on at least one of the plurality of BAW structures; forming a plurality of mounting pillars on the first substrate; and flip chip mounting the first substrate with the plurality of mounting pillars on to a third substrate.
The present application is further detailed with respect to the following drawings. These figures are not intended to limit the scope of the present application but rather illustrate certain attributes thereof. The same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.
The description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of presently preferred embodiments of the disclosure and is not intended to represent the only forms in which the present disclosure may be constructed and/or utilized. The description sets forth the functions and the sequence of steps for constructing and operating the disclosure in connection with the illustrated embodiments. It is to be understood, however, that the same or equivalent functions and sequences may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of this disclosure.
The current embodiment involves a novel cavity formation and its manufacturing process that may simplify the cavity formation underneath the film BAR (FBAR) structure, and may eliminate the need of substrate trench etching, subsequent planarization processes, micro-via formation, sacrificial layer and planarized support layer deposition and subsequent removal, and large area planar wafer bonding process over the prior arts. The new and novel cavity structure may be formed by separating the “metal-piezoelectric layer-metal” layer into two steps, and by flip-chip and transport the piezoelectric thin film onto pre-defined metal based and framed cavity structures with solder or eutectic alloy tips to “fuse” the piezoelectric thin films over the cavity regions. The present embodiment may simplify and eliminate any substrate trench etching and silica glass filling and planarization, micro trench and via formation and sacrificial/support layer deposition and removal, and thin film transfer through a large area planar wafer bonding processes which is inheritably a low yield process due to the wafer flatness variation and any voids or air pockets formation in between the two bonded substrates.
Referring to
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A second substrate 36 may be provided. The substrate 36 may be a conventional silicon wafer of the type utilized in integrated circuit fabrication. A metal pattern 38 may be formed on a top surface 36A of the substrate 36. The metal pattern 38 may be a plurality of metal post/pillars 40. The area between the metal post/pillars 40 may form a cavity pattern 42 on the substrate 36. The cavity pattern 42 may typically be non-regular shapes with dimensions in the range of one to several hundred microns in size. The metal pattern 38 and cavity pattern 42 may be created by photo lithographically patterned metal films, posts, walls, wells or the like. Solder tips 44 may be formed on a top surface 438A of the metal pattern 38.
As may be shown in
The wafer bonding performed between the metal layer 34 and the solder tips 44 on the metal post/pillars 40 may form a plurality of cavity areas 46. Once the cavity areas 46 are formed, the substrate 30 may be removed to from the combined structure 46 as may be seen in
After the substrate 30 has been removed, a metal layer 48 may be formed on an exposed bottom surface 32A of the piezoelectric film 32. In accordance with one embodiment, the metal layer 48 may be a molybdenum metal layer. After the application of the metal layer 48, sections of the metal layer 48 and the piezoelectric film 32 may be removed to form one or more BAW cavity devices 50 as shown in
As may be shown in
Referring to
As may be seen in
A second substrate 36 may be provided. The substrate 30 may be a conventional silicon wafer of the type utilized in integrated circuit fabrication. A metal pattern 38 may be formed on a top surface 30A of the substrate 30. The metal pattern 38 may be a plurality of metal post/pillars 40. The area between the metal post/pillars 40 may form a cavity pattern 42 on the second substrate 36. The cavity pattern 42 may typically be non-regular shapes with dimensions in the range of one to several hundred microns in size.
In the present embodiment, the cavity pattern 42 may have trenches 43 formed in a bottom area of the cavity pattern 42. The trenches 43 may be formed in order for the cavity area 46 to achieve certain height requirements. The cavity pattern 42 and trenches 43 may be accomplished by creating a metal-based mask with solder or eutectic alloy tips on top to define the cavity patterns 42, and etch the extended cavity depth (trenches 43) into the substrate 36. All these can be easily achieved by standard photolithography, metal deposition and patterning through evaporation, sputtering, plating, etching or any combination of the above processes. The cavity pattern 42 may typically be non-regular shapes with dimensions in the range of one to several hundred microns in size. Solder tips 44 may be formed on a top surface 38A of the metal pattern 38.
As may be shown in
The wafer bonding performed between the metal layer 34 and the solder tips 44 on the metal post/pillars 40 may form a plurality of cavity areas 46. Once the cavity areas 46 is formed, the substrate 30 may be removed from the combined structure 46 as may be seen in
After the substrate 30 has been removed, a metal layer 48 may be formed on an exposed bottom surface 32A of the piezoelectric film 32. In accordance with one embodiment, the metal layer 48 may be a molybdenum metal layer. After the application of the metal layer 48, sections of the metal layer 48 and the piezoelectric film 32 may be removed to form a plurality of piezoelectric BAW cavity structures 50 as may be seen in
As may be shown in
The piezoelectric BAW cavity structure 50 of
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The present method may differ from all prior art through the use of partial piezoelectric film (metal-piezoelectric film) versus (metal-piezoelectric-metal film) transport from initial substrate to a pre-patterned cavity structured of metal films, posts, walls, or wells with solder or eutectic alloy tips and by fusing of the flipped piezoelectric film to the underneath patterned substrate. The present method may further differ from all prior art since after fusing the piezoelectric film to the metal-based cavity structures and the initial substrate is removed from the back, a second metal layer may be deposited on the exposed piezoelectric film to form the full and complete piezoelectric film structure.
While embodiments of the disclosure have been described in terms of various specific embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced with modifications within the spirit and scope of the claims
This patent application is related to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/845,794 filed May 9, 2019, entitled “NOVEL PIEZOELECTRIC FILM CAVITY STRUCTURE FOR BAW RESONATORS” in the names of Yi-Ching Pao, Majid Riaziat and James Pao, and which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The present patent application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C § 119(e).
Number | Date | Country | |
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62845794 | May 2019 | US |