OPTIMIZATION AND ANALYSIS OF PIEZOELECTRIC AND ELECTRODE MATERIALS' THICKNESS

EFFECTS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF FILM BULK ACOUSTIC RESONATOR

Srikanth Enjamuri
l
, Abhilash Amsanpally
2
,
L Student, M.Tech: School of Physics
2, Project Associate: School of Physics
School of Physics
University of Hyderabad
Hyderabad, India
Email-l: srican.e@gmail.com
Email-2: abhykabhybhyl@gmail.com
Abstract- this paper reports the behavior of the FBAR and its
performance due to change of materials and their thicknesses.
The resonance of the resonator depends on the thickness of the
piezoelectric thin flm acoustic resonator. The confnement of the
acoustic wave in resonator depends on the electrode thickness
and materials. Here such materials efects and the geometric
effects are studied. It is found that acoustic properties of all the
layers infuences the resonator performance, with increased
resonance frequency results from thinner electrodes, as it
decreases the mass loading efect of resonator's electrodes and
uses high longitudinal velocity of the piezoelectric materials.
Keywords-FBAR; resonance; piezoelectric;thin jlm;electrode
I. INTRODUCTION
The rapid growth in wireless communications in recent
years has led to the crowding in fequency spectrum and
pushed the fequencies to higher limits, which increased the
demand for design of miniaturized high performance
microwave devices like mobile phones, WiMA and WA.
To improve the capability of such systems, development of
miniaturized, high performance on-chip flters and resonators
operating in the GHz fequency range are needed. They are
fequently built with the tansmission lines and ceramic
resonators but they become too large in size and hence difcult
to miniaturize frther. A alterative approach to minimize size
up to micro meters is to tansform electomagnetic wave into
an acoustic wave via piezoelectic efect. The velocity of
acoustic wave is about 10000 times lower than the velocity of
an electomagnetic wave at these fequencies. Accordingly the
acoustic wavelength is only a few microns at 1 GHz. Therefore
the flters based on acoustic wave resonators like Surface
acoustic wave (SAW) and Bulk acoustic wave (BA W) devices
can have much smaller size. SA W devices have several
problems at fequencies above 2 GHz such as lesser power
handling and being temperature dependent. SAW devices are
generally manufactured on a LiTa03 or LiNb03 single crystal
substate and hence it is difcult to integrate these SAW flters
with silicon. The thin flm bulk acoustic wave resonator have
many advantages like smaller in size, higher operating
fequencies, higher power handling capability and its
fabrication process is also compatible with standard silicon
based Integrated Circuit(IC) fabrication technologies.
Dr.K.C. James Raju
Associate Professor
School of Physics
University ofHyderabad
Hyderabad, India
Email: kcjrsp@uohyd.eret.in
This paper deals with the modelling and optimization of
thin flm bulk acoustic wave resonators using piezoelectric
ZnO or AlN with diferent electrodes combination and having
various thickesses. I has been realized that thickess of
piezoelectric material and electrodes would infuence the
fequency of the flm bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) and the
properties of the electrode material detemines the related
electromechanical coupling coeffcient.
II BUK ACOUSTIC WAVE REASONATOR
Bulk acoustic wave devices are used mainly in R flters,
sensors, communication systems and radar systems because of
their ability to work in microwave fequencies above 2GHz.
BA W resonator is a piezoelectric device it means that the
electromechanical conversion is based on the piezoelectric
effect. Piezoelectric effect is an ability of some materials to
convert electical energy into mechanical energy and vice
versa. Many crystalline phases possess the property of
piezoelectricity. This property comes fom the fact that the
positive and negative charges in some crystalline materials
under applied stess will undergo spatial separation. The
coupling between electrical and mechanical energIes IS
expressed in the following equations [1]:
T cES- eE
D eS + ESE
(1)
(2)
Where, T is stess, S is stain, E is electic feld and D is
electic displacement and are the feld variables. The tems L
@

and c
b
are the material parameters: L
@
is the stifess constant,
is piezoelectic (stess) constant and c
b
is pemittivity of the
material.
A crystal may be strongly piezoelectric for a given
direction, while the effect is completely absent in a diferent
direction. The stifened phase velocity is:
, '
1
~

P P
(3)
Where L is the elastic stifess constant, L is the
piezoelectric constant, c is the permittivity and p is the mass
density. The superscript E and S represent that the electric
feld and the stain are held constant.
For comparison, the un-stifened phase velocity is:
1 j (4)
Rewriting stifened phase velocity Eq.(3):
Where,
1

1 (1 + K2)
1
/2 (5)
(6)
Eq. (6) is called the piezoelectric coupling constant.
The electromechanical coupling coeffcient is defmed as
C
7
K
7
k
2 -
- (7)

-
8" C' K
7

1
III. WORKING PRlCIPLE OF FBAR
The core of FBAR is the piezoelectic thin flm, which is
usually made up of Aluminum Nitide (AIN) or Zinc Oxide
(ZnO) and the device is confgured with a thin flm of
piezoelectic material sandwiched between two metal
electodes as shown in Fig.I. Whenever the electic feld is
applied in the thickess direction, an acoustic wave is excited
and the stucture gets mechanically deformed. I order to have
a resonant mode in the stucture, the acoustic wave must be
confned in the acoustic cavity created by the piezoelectic
layer. This confnement can be done with flm bulk acoustic
resonator (FBAR), it consist of an air cavity below the bottom
electode, in which the excited acoustic wave is taversed
between top and bottom electode, so that a resonant mode is
created. The resonance condition of a BA W resonator occurs
when piezoelectic material thickess 1 is equal to an integer
multiple of half a wavelength of the acoustic wave [2].
Fig.I. Thee dimensional model ofFBA.
FBAR's performance mainly depends on efective
coupling coeffcient (
k
ef) and quality factor Q, which is
measured by the parameter called "fgure of merit (M)". I is
defned as [3]
Where
k
efand Q-factor are as mentioned below [3]:
I - Series resonance fequency at zero impedance
(8)
(9)
(10)
J - Parallel resonance fequencies of infmite impedance.
The stength of the piezoelectic coupling e ef determines
the bandwidth of flters and the mechanical losses in the
material will determine resonator Q and accordingly flter
insertion loss.
A. Efect of Piezoelectric materials on FBAR
The resonance fequency directly depends on acoustic
velocity of piezo material and resonance fequency increases
with high acoustic velocity of the piezoelectic material. The
resonant condition of the BA W device inversely depends on
the thickess of the piezo materials. The lower the thickess of
the piezo material more will be the resonance fequency of the
device. The resonance fequency of the device can be
expressed by the following equation [2].
J = 1

121 (11)
In order to develope the resonator for higher fequency
applications, thirer should be the piezo material, within the
limitation of mechanical stability. The intinsic property of the
piezoelectric material, electromechanical coupling coeffcient
relates the amount of electrical energy that is converted into
mechanical energy and vice versa [4]. It is important to note
the diference between the piezoelectric material-coupling
coeffcient K
2
and the efective coupling coeffcient K
2
ef. The
effective coupling coeffcient K
2
ef is the property of a device
(i.e., resonator). The material property K
2
, infuences what
kind of effective coupling coeffcient that could be expected
fom a manufactured resonator [5].
B. Efect of Electrode materials on FBAR
The electrode materials of FBAR mainly affect the
resonance fequency and electomechanical coupling. The
resonance fequency increases with lower electrode thickess
and low density electrode material. Low density and thirer
electrode materials decrease the mass loading efect on
electrodes [6]. The acoustic impedance ratio of the electodes
to piezoelectric material determines the behaviour of the K
2
ej
value. For electrode materials with lower acoustic impedance
values results in a low value of K
2
ej.
Therefore resonance and electrical behavior of the
resonator depends prominently on the piezo materials and
electrodes. I this study, the dependence of the materials and
their thickesses have been studied for FBAR based flters and
simulations were performed using COVETNTORWARE
simulator. I addition, the application of BA W resonators in
microwave flter design, especially to flters based on
electrically connected ladder-type flters with Butterworth
Van Dyke (BVD) equivalent model is presented.
II. MODELLING OF FBAR
BA W resonator can be modeled with the modifed BVD
equivalent circuit, this equivalent circuit has become suitable
for the BA W resonator not only for the fndamental operating
mode, but also for the higher harmonics that can be modeled by
adding motional arms in shunt confguration with the static
capacitance. A modifed BVD model is presented in Fig.2, in
order to extact the value of the various lumped components
fom the measurement of a BA W resonator [2]. Where Co
corresponds to the static capacitance, Rp is the associated
material loss resistance, Rm is the resistance associated with
mechanical losses and Lm and Cm are the motional inductance
and capacitance.
CIT R_m Lm
Co Ro
Fig.2: Modifed BVD model of a BA W resonator
I this case, in addition to the basic equivalents, Rs is a
series resistance, which models the electical losses due to the
electodes. This equivalent circuit resonates for two particular
fequencies:
F _
1
J ` -
2
rJ L@.L@
fp =fs Jl+
(13)
(14)
The simplicity of the model, due to the fact that it only
contains lumped elements, makes it very suitable for obtaining
electrical models for more sophisticated stuctures. The
structure of these equivalent circuits leads us to state a series
of analogies between the electromagnetic and mechanical
domain, which is also suitable for obtaining the electrical
characteristics of a BA W resonator.
V. RSULTS AND DISCUSSION
This section provides the results of simulation obtained
with Zo of Iflm thickess as the piezo electric material and
thin flm Aluminium (AI) of thickess 0.3 flm as the electrode
layer of a BA W resonator using Coventerware. DC analysis
gives distibution of the mechanical displacement, where the
top electrode is applied with 1 V and the bottom electrode is
grounded, i.e. V = 0 V. Frequency response analysis is
performed by using the direct harmonic analysis, in which, a
harmonic potential is applied to the top electode with load
value of 1 V and material damping coeffcients are given. The
fequency response simulation is used to estimate the
displacement and impedance variation with signal fequency.
Fig J.B Fig J.D
Fig 3.a: DC Analysis result of displacement magnitude (Jm).
Fig 3.b: Frequency analysis- Mode displacement at 2.291 GHz fequency.
It is apparent that the distibution is uniform at the cente of
the stucture, but this is not flly extended to the whole
surface. This is due to the clamping of the BA W resonator at
the edges.
G raphical results of impedance with respect to fequency
obtained with ZnO of thickness 1 flm and Al electrode of
thickess O.3flm and O.2flm are given below Fig. 4a and b.
t- :
,.
.
....
7
.
Fa Fb
Fig 4.a Impedance Vs Frequency with A electrode thickness as 0.3um.
Fig 4.b Impedance Vs Frequency with A electrode thickness as 0.2 ur.
It can be noticed fom the above fgures that as the thickess
of the electode decreases, the series fequency and parallel
fequency moves towards the increasing directions of
fequency scale. Thus it decreases the mass loading efect on
piezo plate.
In order to study the efect of the piezoelectric material
and electrode efects on the behaviour of the BA W resonator,
the simulations have been carried out by varying the thickess
for two diferent piezoelectric materials viz. Zo and AIN.
Table 1: Summary of the resul ts obtained by the simul ation for
diferent thickness of piezoel ectric ofZnO and A1N.
Zu! ^^
Thickes
s(Jm)
/o(M) Qo
K',g%)
/o(M) Qo
eg%
)
1 2291.46 216 8.25 3514.29 174 5.23
1.2 2013.13 254 8.47 3218.36 186 5.80
1.4 1820.20 287 8.54 2924.54 192 5.91
1.6 1601.21 322 8.75 2680.19 208 6.21
1.8 1484.47 374 8.51 2436.43 214 6.44
2 1439.70 427 8.79 2242.71 229 6.60
The value of the effective electromechanical coupling
coeffcient is also plotted at each piezoelectric thickess for
ZnO and AlN as shown in Fig Sb. I this case, as the
piezoelectric thickness increases, the value of K
2
e also
slightly increases for Zo and AIN i.e., the mechanical loss in
piezoelectric flms has no signifcant efect on K
2
ej
" ./
srsasssum)
Fig S.a Fig S.b
'.0
Fig S.a: Resonance fequency of FBAR with diferent thickness.
Fig S.b: kitt value for ZnO and AlN.
The values of K
2
efachieved in BAW resonators are about
6.6% at 2.24 GHz using AIN. Compared to AIN, the ZnO
gives a better coupling coeffcient of K
2
ef= 8.8% at 1.43 GHz.
This coupling is stongly affected by the electrode materials
which will be studied in the next section. However, ZnO is not
currently a viable alterative to AIN for high volumes due to
the higher manufacturing difculties and worse performance
in terms of acoustic losses at higher fequencies.
A. Efect of the Electrode Thickness
The BA W resonator simulation has been carried out for
diferent thickesses of Aluminum electode, where ZnO is the
piezoelectic material with thickess of 1 fm.
Table 2: Summary of the resul ts obtained by the simul ation with
diferent thickness of el ectrodes
AI Electrode
Thickess(um)
Co(pF) fo(MHz)
Q
o K2efj%)
0.4 0.175 2291.46 216 8.24
0.2 0.174 2616.33 194 8.76
0.1 0.173 2842.86 175 8.60
0.05 0.174 2955.10 162 8.40
We can notice fom the above Table 2 that when the metal
electode thickess is lowered, the allocation of the resonant
fequencies is higher due to lesser mass loading efect on piezo
flm and Q-value is also degrading because for lower values of
electode thickess got higher electic losses. By observing
K
2
el values fom the above Table, the electrode thickess has
no visible efect on the characterization of the efective
electomechanical coupling factor.
B. Efect of the Electrode material
I this section, the BA W resonator was analyzed in the
presence of diferent metal electodes. I order to study the
behavior of the BA W resonator with various type of metal
electodes, the same simulations have been carried out with
metals such as Aluminum(AI), Copper(Cu), Gold (Au) and
Tungsten (W). Figure 6. a shows the variation of fequency
with diferent metal electodes and Figure 6. b, variation K
2
ef
for diferent electode materials.
Table 3: Summary of the simul ation resul ts for diferent el ectrode
material s
Electrode
fp- f,
fo Qo
K2em%)
Materials (MHz)
Aluminum(AI) 101.54 2616.33 216 8.76
Copper(Cu) 119.72 2195.42 183 12.32
Gold (Au) 153.99 1498.54 81 22.53
Tungsten (W) 168.51 1407.51 159 25.98
In Figure 6. a, it can be noticed that, Aluminum electodes
yields higher resonant fequencies than Copper, Gold or
Tungsten because Aluminum has the lowest density and hence
gives less mass loading for the FBAR device.
However, degradation of K
2
ef depends on the acoustic
impedance of the metal electodes used. For the heaviest
material, in this case, Tungsten (W) has high acoustic
impedance and the value of K
2
ef achieved for BA W resonators
with it is about 26% at 1.5 GHz using piezo ZnO.
Fig6.a Fig6.b
Figure 6.a FBAR resonant fequency with diferent electrode materials.
Figure 6.b Variation of K24J with diferent electrode materials.
Aluminum (AI) electodes have good electrical
conductivity and poor acoustic characteristics because of
lower acoustic impedance, which results in a low
electromechanical coupling coefcient of about 8.7% and
therefore its uses are limited to the lower bandwidth flters.
It can be noticed fom the Table 3 that the resonance
fequency will be shifed to lower values and the fequency
diference between the series and parallel fequency will be
enhanced for diferent electode materials. Hence, it can be
concluded that high acoustic impedance metal electodes are
preferred for higher bandwidth flters, due to the high efective
electromechanical coupling constant associated with them.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors acknowledge National Program on Micro and
Smart Systems (NPMASS) for fnding the required tools
under the NMDC program for the successfl completion of the
project.
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