Influence of Etching Trench on Keff2 of Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator

As radio-frequency (RF) communication becomes more ubiquitous globally, film bulk acoustic resonators (FBAR) have attracted great attention for their superior performance. One of the key parameters of an FBAR, the effective electromechanical coupling coefficient (Keff2), has a great influence on the bandwidth of RF filters. In this work, we propose a feasible method to tune the Keff2 of the FBAR by etching the piezoelectric material to form a trench around the active area of the FBAR. The influence of the position of the etching trench on the Keff2 of the FBAR was investigated by 3D finite element modeling and experimental fabricating. Meanwhile, a theoretical electrical model was presented to test and verify the simulated and measured results. The Keff2 of the FBAR tended to be reduced when the distance between the edge of the top electrode and the edge of the trench was increased, but the Q value of the FBAR was not degraded. This work provides a new possibility for tuning the Keff2 of resonators to meet the requirements of different filter bandwidths.

Efficient Wideband Spectrum Sensing Using Mems Acoustic Resonators

The ever-increasing demand for wireless applications has resulted in an unprecedented radio frequency (RF) spectrum shortage. Ironically, at the same time, actual utilization of the spectrum is sparse in practice [1]. To exploit previously underutilized frequency bands to accommodate new unlicensed applications and achieve highly efficient usage of the spectrum, the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) has repurposed many frequency bands for dynamic spectrum sharing. This includes the 6 GHz band to be shared between Wi-Fi 6 and the incumbent users [2] as well as the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band [3].

Spurious free thickness shear bulk acoustic resonators on lithium niobate using standard and broadband piston mode designs

This paper describes design and fabrication of sprious-free thickness shear bulk acoustic resonators (TSBARs) using the lithium niobate (LN) plate. Previously, the authors conjected from the experiment on the TSBAR that cutoff edges with crystal LN X-plane serve as ideal reflectors for the piston mode operation, and complete suppression is possible by adding the standard piston mode design to the other edges normal to the X-axis. Following to this conjecture, the traditional piston mode structure is designed by the traditional two-dimensional finite element method, and the TSBAR is fabricated following to the design. The experiment showed complete suppression of the transverse mode resonances, and the conjecture was verified.

Elastic Trapped Modes in Solid Acoustic Resonators of Various Shapes

Resonators are one of the main building blocks of many acoustic, photonic, and microwave devices such as metasurfaces, sensing devices, antennas, and many more. One of the main properties of any resonator, which also determines the properties of the structure, based on the resonator, is the quality (Q) factor. Q-factor of the resonator is limited due to material and radiative losses. In this paper, we propose the existence of modes of solid resonators, immersed in a nonviscious fluid, which are non-radiative, and therefore, their Q-factor is limited only by material losses.

Non-Foster acoustic radiation from an active piezoelectric transducer

The quality factor of a passive, linear, small acoustic radiator is fundamentally limited by its volume normalized to the emitted wavelength, imposing severe constraints on the bandwidth and efficiency of compact acoustic sources and of metamaterials composed of arrangements of small acoustic resonators. We demonstrate that these bounds can be overcome by loading a piezoelectric transducer with a non-Foster active circuit, showing that its radiation bandwidth and efficiency can be largely extended beyond what is possible in passive radiators, fundamentally limited only by stability considerations. Based on these principles, we experimentally observe a threefold bandwidth enhancement compared to its passive counterpart, paving the way toward non-Foster acoustic radiation and more broadly active metamaterials that overcome the bandwidth constraints hindering passive systems.