Patent Application
20050237133
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface acoustic wave filter element, a surface acoustic wave filter, a module and a communication device provided with balanced type terminals capable of suppressing deterioration of electric characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of mobile communications in recent years, there are expectations for improvement in performance and reduction in size of components used. Furthermore, balancing of semiconductor components such as ICs for the purpose of low noise characteristics is developed and balancing is also required for a surface acoustic wave filter element used in the RF stage.
As a conventional filter in the RF stage of mobile communication device, a surface acoustic wave filter is widely used. Especially, a longitudinally coupled mode surface acoustic wave filter element allows a balanced-unbalanced conversion to be easily realized.
Furthermore, with regard to miniaturization, a face down mounting technology represented by flip chip and CSP (Chip Size Package) is becoming the mainstream instead of a conventional wire bonding mounting technology.
A longitudinally coupled mode surface acoustic wave filter element having conventional balanced type input/output terminals will be explained below.
In
Furthermore, the electrode fingers on one side of the second and third IDT electrodes 703 and 704 are connected to an unbalanced type terminal 709 and the electrode fingers on the other side are grounded. The above-described configuration allows a surface acoustic wave filter element provided with unbalanced-balanced type terminals to be realized.
Then, an example of a configuration where the surface acoustic wave filter element is mounted face down on a circuit board will be explained.
The electrode finger on one side of the first IDT electrode 702 is connected to a first electrode pad 802 through a first wiring electrode 801. The electrode finger on the other side of the first IDT electrode 702 is connected to a second electrode pad 804 through a second wiring electrode 803.
The electrode finger on one side of the second IDT electrode 703 and the electrode finger on one side of the third IDT electrode 704 are each connected to a third electrode pad 806 through a third wiring electrode 805. The grounding electrode is omitted here.
The surface acoustic wave filter element shown in FIG. 8A is mounted in such a way as to face the circuit board 807. For example, a mounting method by ultrasonic thermo-compression bonding using a gold bump can be used. At this time, the first electrode pad 802 is connected to the first on-circuit-board wiring electrode 808, the second electrode pad 804 is connected to the second on-circuit-board wiring electrode 809 and the third electrode pad 806 is connected to the third on-circuit-board wiring electrode 810.
The first, second and third on-circuit-board wiring electrodes 808, 809 and 810 are led out as terminals by means of through holes, via holes or external electrodes of the circuit board, etc. In this case, the first, second and third electrodes 808, 809 and 810 are connected to one side OUT1 of the balanced type output terminal, the other side OUT2 of the balanced type output terminal and unbalanced type input terminal IN respectively, thus realizing a surface acoustic wave filter provided with the unbalanced-balanced type terminals.
Furthermore, the conventional surface acoustic wave device provides a plurality of grounding connecting conductors for connecting at least one of the grounding electrode pads of the surface acoustic wave element and at least one of grounding external connection terminals of the surface mounting package on the inner surface of the surface mounting package, and thereby improves the level of out-of-band suppression (e.g., see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-145772).
Furthermore, according to the conventional surface acoustic wave device, if coupling between the input terminals on the unbalanced type and the balanced type IDT terminals exists, an in-phase voltage is generated, and therefore it is recommended to suppress electrical coupling between both IDTs wherever possible, but no specific configuration thereof is disclosed (e.g., see “Transactions in 2001 on Foundation/Boundary Society Conference of Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers” (Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Aug. 29, 2001, pp. 283 to 284)).
The entire disclosure of Laid-open No. 11-145772 and pp. 283 to 284 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
However, the aforementioned surface acoustic wave filter element or surface acoustic wave filter does not deal with causes for deterioration of a balance characteristic which is one of important electric characteristics in great detail nor defines a configuration of wiring electrodes on a piezoelectric substrate and a structure of a circuit board with the balance characteristic taken into consideration.
In view of the above-described problems of the conventional art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a surface acoustic wave filter element having a balanced type terminal, surface acoustic wave filter, module and communication device provided with a satisfactory balance characteristic by identifying causes for deterioration of a balance characteristic of a surface acoustic wave filter element or a surface acoustic wave filter and improving the balance characteristic.
The 1st invention of the present invention is a surface acoustic wave filter element comprising:
The 2nd invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 1st invention, wherein one of said first and second wiring electrode means is disposed on said piezoelectric substrate and said other wiring electrode means is disposed on a circuit board on which said piezoelectric substrate is to be mounted.
The 3rd invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 1st invention, wherein (1) one of said first and second wiring electrode means is formed on said piezoelectric substrate and said other wiring electrode means is an inner layer electrode of a circuit board on which said piezoelectric substrate is to be mounted or (2) one of said first and second wiring electrode means is formed on a circuit board on which said piezoelectric substrate is to be mounted and said other wiring electrode means is an inner layer electrode of said circuit board.
The 4th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 1st invention, wherein one of said first and second, wiring electrode means is disposed on main plane of the piezoelectric substrate and said other wiring electrode means is disposed on a protective film formed on said main plane of said piezoelectric substrate.
The 5th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 4th invention, wherein said protective film is a dielectric thin film.
The 6th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 1st invention, wherein said surface acoustic wave filter element is a longitudinally coupled mode surface acoustic wave filter element, in which a first, second and third IDT electrodes and at least two reflector electrodes are disposed in the propagation direction of surface acoustic waves, and
The 7th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 6th invention, further comprising:
The 8th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 6th invention, further comprising:
The 9th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 7th invention, wherein said third electrode pad is connected to one electrode finger of said second IDT electrode and said fourth electrode pad is connected to the other electrode finger of said third IDT electrode, and
The 10th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 8th invention, wherein said second wiring electrode means is connected to one electrode finger of said second IDT electrode and also connected to the other electrode finger of said third IDT electrode, and
The 11th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 1st invention, wherein said surface acoustic wave filter element is constructed in such a way that a first IDT electrode and a surface acoustic wave resonator made up of two reflector electrodes disposed on both sides of said first IDT electrode are connected in a ladder form or symmetric lattice form.
The 12th invention of the present invention is a surface acoustic wave filter comprising:
The 13th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter according to the 12th invention, wherein said circuit board constitutes part of a ceramic package.
The 14th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter according to the 12th invention,
The 15th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter according to the 12th invention,
The 16th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter according to the 12th invention, wherein said mounting is face down mounting.
The 17th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 1st invention, wherein there is free space between said different planes.
The 18th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 1st invention, wherein when it is assumed that a relative dielectric constant between said different planes is ∈; a distance between said first and second wiring electrode means formed on said different planes is t; an area of the intersection formed by said first wiring electrode means and said second wiring electrode means is S, then
∈×S/t≦1.1×10−2
is satisfied.
The 19th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 1st invention, wherein said piezoelectric substrate is a substrate whose effective relative dielectric constant is 40 or above.
The 20th invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 19th invention, wherein the material of said piezoelectric substrate is selected from lithium tantalite and lithium niobate.
The 21st invention of the present invention is the surface acoustic wave filter element according to the 1st invention, wherein said surface acoustic wave filter element is constructed in such a way that the value of admittance of parasitic components between said first wiring electrode means and said second wiring electrode means is 0.6 mS or less.
The 22nd invention of the present invention is a module comprising:
The 23rd invention of the present invention is the module according to the 22nd invention, wherein said substrate is a laminated element made up of laminated dielectric layers.
The 24th invention of the present invention is the module according to the 22nd invention, wherein said semiconductor device is a low-noise amplifier.
The 25th invention of the present invention is the module according to the 24th invention, wherein said low-noise amplifier is of a balanced type.
The 26th invention of the present invention is the module according to the 24th invention, wherein said semiconductor device is either a switch element or mixer.
The 27th invention of the present invention is a surface acoustic wave filter comprising:
The 28th invention of the present invention is a communication device comprising:
With reference now to the attached drawings, a surface acoustic wave filter element and surface acoustic wave filter according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be explained below.
First, causes for deterioration of the balance characteristic of the aforementioned surface acoustic wave filter element will be considered.
{square root}{square root over ({(∈11T)×(∈33T))} (Equation 1)
As shown in
When wiring is conducted using the wiring electrodes on the piezoelectric substrate, the relative dielectric constant is large and its influence is large accordingly. On the other hand, if these electrodes are distanced from each other, the coupling by the parasitic components can be reduced, but in practice, the surface acoustic wave filter element must also be reduced in size, hence there is a limit to increasing the distance between these electrodes.
Here, the amplitude balance characteristic is as follows. That is, a signal input from the unbalanced type terminal 709 of the surface acoustic wave filter element shown in
On the other hand, the phase balance characteristic indicates a deviation from 180 degrees of a phase difference between the phase of the signal output to the balanced type terminal 707 on one side and the phase of the signal output to the balanced type terminal 708 on the other side. Then, if this value becomes zero, it is possible to assume that there is no deterioration of the balance characteristic.
As shown in
Realizing a filter capable of keeping the amplitude balance characteristic within ±1 dB and the phase balance characteristic within ±10 deg requires the capacitance value as the parasitic components between input and output to be reduced to 0.10 pF or less. That is, considering an admittance component Y, Y=2πfC, and therefore Y can be set to 0.6 [mS] or less, where f is a frequency and C is a capacitance value.
Then, the configurations of the surface acoustic wave filter element and surface acoustic wave filter capable of overcoming the aforementioned causes for deterioration of the balance characteristics will be explained.
The electrode finger on the other side of the first IDT electrode 102 is connected to the second electrode pad 110 through the second wiring electrode 109.
The electrode fingers on one side of the second and third IDT electrodes 103 and 104 are practically directly connected to the third and fourth electrode pads 111 and 112. The electrode fingers on the other side of the second and third IDT electrodes 103 and 104 are grounded, but the grounding electrodes are omitted here.
The surface acoustic wave filter element shown in
For example, a mounting method by ultrasonic thermo-compression bonding using a gold bump can be used.
At this time, the first electrode pad 108 is connected to the first on-circuit-board wiring electrode 114, the second electrode pad 110 is connected to the second on-circuit-board wiring electrode 115 and the third and fourth electrode pads 111 and 112 are connected to two locations of the third on-circuit-board wiring electrode 116.
At this time, the third wiring electrode 116 on the circuit board plays the same role as that of the third wiring electrode 805 in
The first, second and third on-circuit-board wiring electrodes 114, 115 and 116 are led out as terminals by means of through holes, via holes or external electrodes of the circuit board, etc.
In this case, the first, second and third electrodes 114, 115 and 116 are connected to one side OUT1 of the balanced type output terminal, the other side OUT2 of the balanced type output terminal and unbalanced type input terminal IN, realizing a surface acoustic wave filter provided with the unbalanced-balanced type terminals.
Adopting such a configuration, the first and second wiring electrodes 107 and 109 of the first IDT electrode are spatially distanced from the wiring electrode 116 on the third circuit board connected to the second and third IDT electrodes.
Such a configuration can obviously suppress coupling between input and output to a minimum compared to the configuration shown in
By the way, the first wiring electrode means of the present invention corresponds to the pair of wiring electrodes denoted by the first and second wiring electrodes 107 and 109 in
Furthermore, in
Ca=∈0×S/t (Equation 2)
For example, suppose S=100 μm×100 μm, t=20 μm. Then, from Equation 2, Ca is as small as 4.4 [fF].
In practice, it is necessary to optimize the configurations of the piezoelectric substrate and circuit board also considering elements other than the intersection area, but if both electrodes are spatially distant from each other, it is possible to reduce coupling between input and output compared to the conventional configuration and achieve the same effect of improving the balance characteristic.
Furthermore, when wiring is conducted by eliminating the wiring electrodes on the piezoelectric substrate of the surface acoustic wave filter element and using the circuit board as a multilayer substrate, the height of the overall filter including the substrate increases slightly, which may constitute a disadvantage from the standpoint of low-profile implementation, but with regard to the balance characteristic, effects of the improvement can be obtained if a substrate of a small relative dielectric constant is used.
Examples of the circuit board include a laminated element made of alumina and ceramic dielectric, etc. The relative dielectric constant of these substances is on the order of 10. In this case, Ca becomes 0.04 [pF] according to the above-described Equation and it is known from
Therefore, in order to conduct multilayer wiring in the circuit board to realize a configuration with the parasitic component reduced to 0.1 pF or less, it is preferable that the relative dielectric constant ∈ of the circuit board material, distance t between the wiring electrodes and the area S of the intersection of the wiring electrodes have a relationship that satisfies:
∈×S/t≦1.1×10−2 (Equation 3)
However, when materials of a plurality of different relative dielectric constants exist between the planes, the planes as a whole need to satisfy the above relationship.
Furthermore, according to this embodiment, the wiring electrodes 107 and 109 on the balanced side are formed on the piezoelectric substrate 101 and those on the unbalanced side are practically directly connected to the wiring electrode 116 on the circuit board. However, this embodiment is not limited to this and, for example, as shown in
At this time, the first and second electrode pads 108 and 110 are connected to the wiring electrodes 303 and 304 on the circuit board. Therefore, the wiring electrode 303 on the circuit board plays the same role (role as the wiring electrode) as that of the first wiring electrode 801 in
Furthermore, the third electrode pad 302 is connected to the wiring electrode 305 on the circuit board. In this case, the on-circuit-board wiring electrodes 303, 304 and 305 on the circuit board on the surface layer of the circuit board 113 are arranged as appropriate according to the configuration of the surface acoustic wave on the piezoelectric substrate 101.
Even with the above configuration, the wiring electrodes 303 and 304 of the first IDT electrodes on the first and second circuit boards are spatially separated from the wiring electrode 301 of the second and third IDT electrodes, which makes it possible to reduce coupling between input and output to a minimum and improve the balance characteristic of the surface acoustic wave filter.
By the way, the first wiring electrode means of the present invention corresponds to the pair of the wiring electrodes denoted by the first and second on-circuit-board wiring electrodes 303 and 304 in
This embodiment has described a circuit board, but a package etc. can also be used.
Furthermore, this embodiment has described the configuration where the electrode fingers on one side of the second and third IDT electrodes 103 and 104 are practically directly connected to the third and fourth electrode pads 111 and 112, but this embodiment is not limited to this and, for example, the electrode fingers can also be connected through a bus bar electrode etc. if the configuration is at least optimized in such a configuration that shortens the wiring length.
With reference now to the attached drawings, a surface acoustic wave filter element and surface acoustic wave filter according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be explained below.
In
The electrode finger on one side of the first IDT electrode 402 is connected to one balanced type terminal 407 and the electrode finger on the other side of the first IDT electrode 402 is connected to another balanced type terminal 408.
Furthermore, an unbalanced type terminal 409 is connected to the electrode finger on one side of the second IDT electrode 403 and the electrode finger on the other side of the third IDT electrode 404 through the surface acoustic wave resonator 410.
Here, the electrode finger 403a on one side of the second IDT electrode 403 and the electrode finger 404b on the other side of the third IDT electrode 404 are disposed opposite to each other as shown in
Adopting such a configuration realizes a surface acoustic wave filter element having unbalanced-balanced type terminals.
Then, an example of a configuration when the surface acoustic wave filter element is mounted face down on a package and substrate will be explained.
The electrode finger on one side of the first IDT electrode 402 is connected to a first electrode pad 502 through a first wiring electrode 501. The electrode finger on the other side of the first IDT electrode 402 is connected to a second electrode pad 504 through a second wiring electrode 503.
The electrode finger of the second IDT electrode 403 on one side is practically directly connected to the third electrode pad 505. The electrode finger on the other side of the third IDT electrode 404 is practically and directly connected to the fourth electrode pad 506.
The electrode finger on the other side of the second IDT electrode 403 and the electrode finger on one side of the third IDT electrode 404 are grounded, but the description of the grounding electrodes is omitted here.
Furthermore, the one side and the other side of the IDT electrode of the surface acoustic wave resonator 410 are practically directly connected to a fifth and sixth electrode pads 507 and 508.
The surface acoustic wave filter element shown in
For example, a mounting method by ultrasonic thermo-compression bonding using a gold bump can be used. At this time, the first electrode pad 502 is connected to the first on-circuit-board wiring electrode 510, the second electrode pad 504 is connected to the second on-circuit-board wiring electrode 511 and the third and fourth electrode pads 505 and 506 are connected to the third on-circuit-board wiring electrode 512.
Furthermore, the fifth electrode pad 507 is connected to the fourth on-circuit-board wiring electrode 513 and the sixth electrode pad 508 is connected to the third on-circuit-board wiring electrode 512.
That is, the third on-circuit-board wiring electrode 512 is connected to three electrode pads and plays a role of the wiring electrode for connecting the surface acoustic wave resonator 410 and the second and third IDT electrodes 403 and 404.
Furthermore, the first, second and fourth on-circuit-board wiring electrodes 510, 511 and 513 are led out as terminals by means of through holes, via holes or external electrodes of the circuit board, etc.
In this case, the first, second and fourth electrodes 510, 511 and 513 are connected to one side OUT1 of the balanced type output terminal, the other side OUT2 of the balanced type output terminal and unbalanced type input terminal IN, realizing a surface acoustic wave filter provided with the unbalanced-balanced type terminals.
Adopting such a configuration, the first and second wiring electrodes 501 and 503 of the first IDT electrodes are spatially separated from the third on-circuit-board wiring electrode 512 connected to the second and third IDT electrodes, which can suppress coupling between input and output to a minimum and improve the balance characteristic of the surface acoustic wave filter element.
Actual measurement results of the filter of the present invention were compared with those of the filter of the conventional configuration and the balance characteristic was evaluated using a 1.8-GHz band filter, and the results show that by adopting the configuration of the present invention, deviations of the amplitude and phase balance characteristics (difference between maximum and minimum values) are improved by about 25%.
Further adopting such a configuration that the wiring electrodes on the circuit board and the IDT electrodes formed on the piezoelectric substrate do not spatially overlap with one another makes it possible to further reduce parasitic components.
That is, when the piezoelectric substrate 401 is viewed in the direction indicated by arrow A in
The above-described embodiment has mainly described a case where either one of the first and second wiring electrodes of the present invention is provided on the piezoelectric substrate and the other wiring electrodes are provided on the circuit board.
However, this embodiment is not limited to this, and can also be constructed in such a way that (1) either one of the first and second wiring electrodes is formed on the piezoelectric substrate and the other wiring electrode is an inner layer electrode of the circuit board on which the piezoelectric substrate is to be mounted (see
Here,
Furthermore, using
However, this embodiment is not limited to this and can also be, for example, a surface acoustic wave filter element as shown in
This case also has the same effects as those of the above-described embodiment.
Furthermore, the above-described embodiment has mainly described a configuration having a piezoelectric substrate and a circuit board. However, this embodiment is not limited to this, and the surface acoustic wave filter can also be constructed of, for example, a piezoelectric substrate and a package. In this case, for example, as shown in
Here,
The above embodiment has described examples of the surface acoustic wave filter element and surface acoustic wave filter where the first wiring electrode means of the present invention and the second wiring electrode means of the present invention are disposed on different planes, and as specific examples of the different planes above, the embodiment has described a case where a piezoelectric substrate and a circuit board are used (e.g.
However, this embodiment is not limited to these cases, for example, as shown in
By the way, as shown in
Especially, using a dielectric thin film such as silicon oxide or silicon nitride for this protective film also has a passivation effect of IDT electrodes as well as an effect of improving a temperature characteristic.
Furthermore, connections of electrode pads are not limited to via holes but can be any configuration if it at least allows electric connections.
Furthermore, in Embodiments 1 and 2 of the present invention, if the effective relative dielectric constant of the piezoelectric substrate is greater, the effect is also greater and a piezoelectric substrate having an effective relative dielectric constant of 40 or higher such as LiTaO3 and LiNbO3, etc. can obtain sufficient effects.
Furthermore, Embodiments 1 and 2 of the present invention have described the case of using a 3-electrode longitudinally coupled mode filter, but a 2-electrode, 4-electrode or 5-electrode longitudinally coupled mode filter can also achieve similar effects with respect to the balance characteristic if coupling between the input side and output side becomes smaller as with these embodiments of the present invention. Furthermore, not only a multi-electrode longitudinally coupled mode surface acoustic wave filter but also ladder type or symmetric lattice type filter configuration that uses a surface acoustic wave resonator can achieve similar effects with respect to the balance characteristic if such a filter has a configuration that will reduce coupling between the input side and output side.
Furthermore, this embodiment has described the 1-stage surface acoustic wave filter element, but it is also possible to adopt a configuration having a plurality of surface acoustic wave filter elements cascaded in multiple stages.
Furthermore, as the number of IDT electrodes increases, the wiring on the piezoelectric substrate becomes more complicated and parasitic components between wiring electrodes also increase, and therefore there are expectations for greater effects of improvement in the balance characteristic of the present invention.
Furthermore, Embodiments 1 and 2 have described a balanced-unbalanced type surface acoustic wave filter element and a balanced-unbalanced type surface acoustic wave filter, but even a balanced-balanced type surface acoustic wave filter etc. can also attain similar effects with regard to the balance characteristic if it has a configuration of at least reducing coupling between the input side and output side.
Further, Embodiments 1 and 2 adopt an unbalanced type for the input side and a balanced type for the output side, but the opposite relation can also attain the same effect.
Furthermore, as shown in
Furthermore, the above module can also be constructed in such a way that the semiconductor device constitutes a low-noise amplifier. Or the semiconductor device can also be a mixer.
Furthermore, the above Embodiment has described that the semiconductor device is of a balanced type, but it is also possible to be incorporated a unbalanced-balanced type surface acoustic wave filter with a unbalanced-unbalanced type device such as a GaAs-switch or switch using PIN diode.
Furthermore, it is also possible to apply the surface acoustic wave filter element or surface acoustic wave filter of the present invention to a communication device etc. provided with a balanced type high frequency circuit as shown in
The configuration and operation of the communication device provided with the above-described balanced type high frequency circuit will be explained below with reference to
In
Furthermore, a reception signal received from the antenna 2705 is input to a reception circuit 2712 through the switch 2704, a reception filter 2706 and a reception amplifier 2707.
Here, the transmission amplifier 2702 is of a balanced type and the switch 2704 is of an unbalanced type, and therefore the transmission filter 2703 has a configuration with unbalanced-balanced type input/output terminals. Furthermore, the reception amplifier 2707 is of a balanced type and the switch 2704 is of an unbalanced type, and therefore the reception filter 2706 has a configuration with unbalanced-balanced type input/output terminals.
Applying the surface acoustic wave filter of the present invention to the transmission filter 2703 and/or the reception filter 2706 can also suppress deterioration of modulation accuracy during transmission due to deterioration of the balance characteristic. Furthermore, doing so also makes it possible to suppress deterioration of sensitivity during reception due to deterioration of the balance characteristic and realize a high performance balanced type high frequency circuit.
Furthermore, it is also possible to adopt the aforementioned modular configuration for the transmission filter 2703 and transmission amplifier 2702 or reception filter 2706 and reception amplifier 2707.
Furthermore, it is also possible to adopt the aforementioned modular configuration for the switch element and reception filter or the switch element and transmission filter.
As is apparent from the above-described explanations, the present invention has an advantage of satisfactory balance characteristics.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-330435 | Oct 2001 | JP | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10283375 | Oct 2002 | US |
| Child | 11166495 | Jun 2005 | US |
