The present disclosure relates to a technical field of acoustic wave resonators, for example, to a piezoelectric resonator and a manufacturing method of the piezoelectric resonator.
Surface acoustic wave devices (such as surface acoustic wave (SAW filter) are circuit components that convert electrical signals into surface waves and perform the signal processing, and are widely used as filters, resonators and the like. The quality factor (Q) and the temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) enable the surface acoustic wave devices to have important significance in the research and development of electronic components such as piezoelectric resonators.
Embodiments of the present application provide a piezoelectric resonator and a manufacturing method of the piezoelectric resonator, which effectively avoids the acoustic wave energy leaking into the substrate, reduces the acoustic wave energy loss in the substrate, and a piezoelectric resonator with a high Q value may be obtained and the obtained piezoelectric resonator has a low frequency temperature coefficient.
The embodiment of the present application provides a piezoelectric resonator. The piezoelectric resonator includes:
The embodiment of the present application further provides a manufacturing method of a piezoelectric resonator. The method includes:
In solutions provided by embodiments of the present application, through forming the recess on the upper surface of the substrate, a cavity is formed between the recess and the first piezoelectric layer, so that the acoustic waves form a total reflection through the cavity layer, which may effectively avoid the acoustic wave energy leaking into the substrate, reduce the acoustic wave energy loss in the substrate and obtain a piezoelectric resonator with a high Q value. Meanwhile, the disposed temperature compensation layer may enable the piezoelectric resonator to maintain a low frequency temperature coefficient and effectively improve the temperature compensation efficiency. When the second electrode is provided in the cavity, through mutual action of the second electrode and the first electrode, the application scope of the piezoelectric resonator may be expanded; meanwhile, the volume of the piezoelectric resonator manufactured on the sealed cavity may be smaller.
The present application will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It is to be understood that the embodiments set forth below are intended to illustrate and not to limit the present disclosure. It is to be noted that to facilitate description, only part, not all, of structures related to the present application are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
The embodiment of the present application provides a piezoelectric resonator. The device is applicable to a field of communications.
In solutions of the present application, through forming the recess on the upper surface of the substrate, a cavity is formed between the recess and the first piezoelectric layer, which may effectively avoid that the acoustic wave energy leaks into the substrate, reduce the acoustic wave energy loss in the substrate and obtain a piezoelectric resonator with a high Q value. Meanwhile, the disposed temperature compensation layer may enable the piezoelectric resonator to maintain a low temperature coefficient of frequency and effectively improve the temperature compensation efficiency.
In one embodiment, the first electrode is located at a surface of the first piezoelectric layer facing away from the substrate, and the temperature compensation layer covers the first electrode.
As shown in
The first piezoelectric layer 4 may be aluminum nitride (AlN), zinc oxide (ZnO), lithium niobate (LiNbO3) or lithium tantalate (LiTaO3), etc. The first piezoelectric layer 4 is generally a negative temperature coefficient material, i.e., with increasing of the temperature, the sound velocity is reduced because the reduction of an across-atomic-force of the material causes the reduction of a material elastic constant, thereby reducing the sound velocity. The material of the temperature compensation layer may be a positive temperature coefficient material, such as SiO2. SiO2 is a unique material, a silicon-oxygen chain of the material stretches with the temperature rising, so that a rigidity of the material has a positive temperature coefficient, and the sound velocity of the sound waves propagated in the SiO2 presents the positive temperature coefficient. Therefore, SiO2 is used for compensating a frequency shift of the piezoelectric resonator caused by the temperature change, and the first piezoelectric layer 4 can implement better temperature compensation. In addition, SiO2 may be a low sound velocity layer, and a thickness of the layer may be a nanoscale and has less influence on a Q and electromechanical coupling coefficient (Kt2) of the resonator.
In one embodiment, the temperature compensation layer is located at the surface of the side of the first piezoelectric layer facing away from the substrate, and the first electrode is located at a side of the temperature compensation layer facing away from the substrate. In one embodiment, the first electrode is located at a surface of the side of the temperature compensation layer facing away from the substrate. In one embodiment, the piezoelectric resonator may also include a second piezoelectricity layer located between the temperature compensation layer and the first electrode, and the first electrode is located at a surface of a side of the second piezoelectricity layer facing away from the substrate.
As shown in
The first electrodes 5 may be interdigital electrodes and distributed uniformly on the upper surface of the temperature compensation layer 3. The first electrode 5 and the temperature compensation layer 3 are alternately disposed. The material of the interdigital electrode may be made of metal alloy such as Al or AlCu, and the interdigital electrode has the function of converting electric signals into acoustic signals through an interdigital transducer. In addition, an electrode film thickness of the interdigital electrode is about 50 nm-200 nm, which may ensure a smaller electrical resistivity of the electrode. The interdigital electrodes form an electric field in the temperature compensation layer 3 and the first piezoelectricity layer 4, thereby stimulating or acquiring acoustic waves of the filter and the resonator in a specific vibration mode.
Alternatively, as shown in
In one embodiment, the piezoelectric resonator may also include a second electrode, the second electrode is located in the cavity and disposed at a surface of a side of the first piezoelectricity layer close to the substrate.
Exemplarily, referring to
In one embodiment, the piezoelectric resonator further includes at least one of: the first electrode is an interdigital electrode or a surface electrode, and the second electrode is the interdigital electrode or the surface electrode. A shape and disposed position of at least one electrode of the first electrode and the second electrode may have various changes, and are not limited to the above situations. Through configuring the shape and position of at least one electrode of the first electrode and the second electrode, waves in different modes may be obtained, and an application scope of the piezoelectric resonator is extended.
As shown in
In one embodiment, as shown in
The interdigital electrode may convert an electric signal into an acoustic signal, the first electrode 5 and the second electrode 6 are both interdigital electrodes, and the first electrode 5 and the second electrode 6 cooperate with each other, so that the piezoelectric resonator may be stimulated to generate a transverse body wave, a longitudinal body wave or acoustic waves in other forms according to different circuit connection modes, the transverse body wave is applicable to a narrow-band filter.
In one embodiment, as shown in
In one embodiment, as shown in
In one embodiment, as shown in
Referring to
In the structure of the piezoelectric resonator, the temperature compensation layer (SiO2) is generally deposited above the piezoelectric resonator. It has two functions, one function is to perform temperature compensation; and secondly, the SiO2 layer may be used as a protection layer, preventing the piezoelectric resonator from being polluted by external water vapor, particles and other substances. To have a good filter property (bandwidth), the standard thickness of the SiO2 layer should be less than half of the thickness of the first piezoelectric layer. If a better harmonic property and a good temperature compensation property are desired, the thickness of the SiO2 layer may also be increased by 1.5 times of the thickness of the first piezoelectric layer.
The structure of the piezoelectric resonator provided in the embodiments of the present application, the temperature compensation layer (SiO2) is disposed above the first piezoelectric layer, so that the acoustic wave energy is mainly concentrated in the first piezoelectric layer, and a total reflection is formed at an interface of the first piezoelectric layer and the cavity, avoiding the energy leaking into the substrate. Such structure may keep the piezoelectric resonator have a high Q value and a low TCF, especially for being applied to the case described below. In a very steep roll-off area of the filter, a slight frequency shift due to the temperature change may cause the filter to fail to meet the technical indicator in the roll-off area. In addition, the structure may also be applied to a system solving mutual interference of different communication standards such as a mobile phone system of an integration satellite radio or GPS navigation.
In addition, the embodiment of the present application further provides a manufacturing method of a piezoelectric resonator.
In step 110, a recess is formed on an upper surface of a substrate.
The substrate is used as a support layer, the support layer may be a silicon substrate, and on the silicon substrate, part of silicon materials may be removed through a mask or photoetching on the support layer through a deep reactive ion etching technology (DRIE). A sectional structure of the recess may be a rectangular or radial, and a depth of the sectional structure of the recess may be a nano-scale or micron-scale, a size of the recess may be selected correspondingly according to the actual demands. The silicon substrate may be a high acoustic velocity material layer, and an electrical resistivity of the substrate is about 1000 Ω·cm or more, which may reduce the insertion loss of the filter.
In step 120, a sacrificial material is filled in the recess, an upper surface of the sacrificial material is flush with the upper surface of the substrate.
In the obtained recess structure, through filling the sacrificial material, the sacrificial material may be aluminium, magnesium, SiO2 or germanium. Through a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) technology, a planarization process enables an upper surface of the sacrificial material to flush with an upper surface of the substrate, thereby facilitating the subsequent manufacturing of the piezoelectric layer.
In step 130, a first piezoelectricity layer is covered on the upper surface of the substrate and the upper surface of the sacrificial material.
The step in which the first piezoelectricity layer is covered on the upper surface of the substrate and the upper surface of the sacrificial material includes: forming the first piezoelectric layer by an epitaxial growth process, a film transfer process or a wafer thinning process. For example, a first piezoelectric layer of single-crystal aluminum nitride is obtained through epitaxially growing of a metal organic chemical vapor deposition method at the surface of the planarized substrate; or the single-crystal aluminum nitride manufactured on other substrates may be separated. The manufactured first piezoelectric layer of single-crystal aluminum nitride is transferred and pressed on a support layer through a film transfer process; or a wafer (such as aluminum nitride) may be bonded to a surface of the support layer by using a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) adhesive, and be bonded to a support substrate upside down, through grinding, thinning and polishing the wafer to ensure its flatness, a desired film thickness is obtained.
In step 140, a first electrode and a temperature compensation layer are formed on a side of the first piezoelectricity layer facing away from the substrate, in a direction perpendicular to the substrate, a projection of the first electrode on the substrate is located at an area in which the recess is located.
Referring to
In addition, in a direction perpendicular to the substrate 1, the projection of the first electrode 5 on the substrate 1 is located in the area in which the recess is located. So multiple cases of the distribution position of the electrode 5 above the substrate 1, reference can be made to the embodiments of the piezoelectric resonator described above, thus will not be described herein.
In step 150, the sacrificial material is removed to form a cavity.
Referring to
In solutions of the present application, through forming the recess on the upper surface of the substrate, the cavity is formed between the recess and the first piezoelectric layer, which may effectively avoid that the acoustic wave energy leaks into the substrate, reduce the acoustic wave energy loss in the substrate and obtain a piezoelectric resonator with a high Q value. Meanwhile, the disposed temperature compensation layer may enable the piezoelectric resonator to maintain a low frequency temperature coefficient and effectively improve the temperature compensation efficiency. When the second electrode is provided in the cavity, through mutual action of the second electrode and the first electrode, the application scope of the piezoelectric resonator may be expanded, and the piezoelectric resonator may be applied to the filters with a narrow bandwidth and a wide bandwidth, and the volume of the piezoelectric resonator in the embodiment is small.
Embodiments of the present application provide a piezoelectric resonator and a manufacturing method of the piezoelectric resonator, which effectively avoids the acoustic wave energy leaking into the substrate, reduces the acoustic wave energy loss in the substrate, and a piezoelectric resonator with a high Q value may be obtained and the temperature compensation efficiency may be effectively improved.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201711121168.8 | Nov 2017 | CN | national |
201721512611.X | Nov 2017 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2018/085289 | 5/2/2018 | WO | 00 |