Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03H—IMPEDANCE NETWORKS, e.g. RESONANT CIRCUITS; RESONATORS
  • H03H9/00—Networks comprising electromechanical or electro-acoustic elements; Electromechanical resonators
  • H03H9/15—Constructional features of resonators consisting of piezoelectric or electrostrictive material
  • H03H9/17—Constructional features of resonators consisting of piezoelectric or electrostrictive material having a single resonator
  • H03H9/171—Constructional features of resonators consisting of piezoelectric or electrostrictive material having a single resonator implemented with thin-film techniques, i.e. of the film bulk acoustic resonator [FBAR] type
  • H03H9/172—Means for mounting on a substrate, i.e. means constituting the material interface confining the waves to a volume
  • H03H9/175—Acoustic mirrors
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03H—IMPEDANCE NETWORKS, e.g. RESONANT CIRCUITS; RESONATORS
  • H03H3/00—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for the manufacture of impedance networks, resonating circuits, resonators
  • H03H3/007—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for the manufacture of impedance networks, resonating circuits, resonators for the manufacture of electromechanical resonators or networks
  • H03H3/02—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for the manufacture of impedance networks, resonating circuits, resonators for the manufacture of electromechanical resonators or networks for the manufacture of piezoelectric or electrostrictive resonators or networks
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03H—IMPEDANCE NETWORKS, e.g. RESONANT CIRCUITS; RESONATORS
  • H03H9/00—Networks comprising electromechanical or electro-acoustic elements; Electromechanical resonators
  • H03H9/02—Details
  • H03H9/02007—Details of bulk acoustic wave devices
  • H03H9/02047—Treatment of substrates
  • H03H9/02055—Treatment of substrates of the surface including the back surface
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03H—IMPEDANCE NETWORKS, e.g. RESONANT CIRCUITS; RESONATORS
  • H03H9/00—Networks comprising electromechanical or electro-acoustic elements; Electromechanical resonators
  • H03H9/02—Details
  • H03H9/02007—Details of bulk acoustic wave devices
  • H03H9/02086—Means for compensation or elimination of undesirable effects
  • H03H9/0211—Means for compensation or elimination of undesirable effects of reflections
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03H—IMPEDANCE NETWORKS, e.g. RESONANT CIRCUITS; RESONATORS
  • H03H9/00—Networks comprising electromechanical or electro-acoustic elements; Electromechanical resonators
  • H03H9/46—Filters
  • H03H9/54—Filters comprising resonators of piezoelectric or electrostrictive material
  • H03H9/58—Multiple crystal filters
  • H03H9/582—Multiple crystal filters implemented with thin-film techniques
  • H03H9/583—Multiple crystal filters implemented with thin-film techniques comprising a plurality of piezoelectric layers acoustically coupled
  • H03H9/585—Stacked Crystal Filters [SCF]
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H03—ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY
  • H03H—IMPEDANCE NETWORKS, e.g. RESONANT CIRCUITS; RESONATORS
  • H03H9/00—Networks comprising electromechanical or electro-acoustic elements; Electromechanical resonators
  • H03H9/46—Filters
  • H03H9/54—Filters comprising resonators of piezoelectric or electrostrictive material
  • H03H9/58—Multiple crystal filters
  • H03H9/582—Multiple crystal filters implemented with thin-film techniques
  • H03H9/586—Means for mounting to a substrate, i.e. means constituting the material interface confining the waves to a volume
  • H03H9/589—Acoustic mirrors
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
  • Y10T—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION
  • Y10T29/00—Metal working
  • Y10T29/42—Piezoelectric device making

Definitions

• the present invention relates to filter devices .
• the present invention especially relates to acoustic wave filter devices, e.g. Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filter devices, and/or Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter devices.
• SAW Surface Acoustic Wave
• BAW Bulk Acoustic Wave
• SAW Surface Acoustic Wave
• BAW Bulk Acoustic Wave filters
• Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filters typically include several Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonators.
• BAW Bulk Acoustic Wave
• acoustic waves propagate in a direction that is perpendicular to the filter's layer surfaces.
• acoustic waves which propagate within a Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) filter do so in a direction that is parallel to the layer surfaces of the filter.
• BAW Bulk Acoustic Wave
• FBARs Thin Film Bulk Acoustic Wave Resonators
• Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filters can be fabricated to include various known types of Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonators. These known types of Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonators comprise three basic portions .
• a second one of the portions includes electrodes that are formed on opposite sides of the piezoelectric layer.
• a third portion of the Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonator includes a mechanism for acoustically isolating the substrate from vibrations produced by the piezoelectric layer.
• Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonators are typically fabricated on silicon, gallium arsenide, or glass substrates using thin film technology (e.g., sputtering, chemical vapor deposition, etc.).
• Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonators exhibit series and parallel resonances that are similar to those of, by example, crystal resonators.
• Resonant frequencies of Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonators can typically range from about 0.5 GH to 5 GHz, depending on the layer thicknesses of the devices.
• FIG. 1 shows an example of a Bulk-Acoustic-Wave (BAW) resonator using an acoustic mirror to acoustically isolate the resonator from the substrate.
• the Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonator 20 comprises a substrate 10 having a top surface 12 and a bottom surface 14. Acoustic mirror 31 overlies the top surface 12 of the substrate.
• the resonator further comprises a piezoelectric layer 22 interposed between a first electrode 21 and a second electrode 23, and a protective layer 16.
• the piezoelectric layer 22 comprises, by example, a piezoelectric material that can be fabricated as a thin film such as, by example, zinc-oxide (ZnO) , or aluminum- nitride (AlN) .
• the acoustic mirror 31 comprises three layers, namely a top layer 31a, a middle layer 31b, and a bottom layer 31c.
• Each layer 31a, 31b and 31c has a thickness that is, by example, approximately equal to one quarter wavelength of the resonance frequency of the resonator.
• the top layer 31a and bottom layer 31c are made of materials having low acoustic impedances such as, by example, silicon oxide (Si0 2 ) , poly-silicon, aluminum (Al) , or a polymer.
• the middle layer 31b is made of a material having a high acoustic impedance such as, by example, gold (Au) , molybdenum (Mo) , or tungsten (W) .
• the ratio of the acoustic impedances of consecutive layers is large enough to permit the impedance of the substrate to be transformed to a lower value.
• the substrate 10 may be comprised of various high acoustic impedance materials or low acoustic impedance materials (e.g., Si, Si0 2 , GaAs, glass, or a ceramic material) .
• the number of layers in an acoustic mirror can vary broadly depending on the degree of acoustic isolation required for the respective filter device. Usually three to up to nine layers are used, wherein uneven and even numbers of layers are possible.
• FIG. 2 an example of a BAW device is shown which comprises a Stacked-Crystal-Filter (SCF) on a substrate 10.
• the Stacked Crystal Filter (SCF) 50 comprises a lower electrode 21, a middle electrode 23, and a top electrode 25. Interposed between the lower and the middle electrode is a first piezoelectric layer 22. Interposed between the middle and the upper electrode is a second piezoelectric layer 2 .
• the piezoelectric layer 22 comprises, by example, a piezoelectric material that can be fabricated as a thin film such as, by example, zinc-oxide (ZnO) , or aluminum-nitride (AlN) .
• the second piezoelectric layer 24 may comprise similar materials as the first piezoelectric layer 22.
• the middle electrode 23 is usually employed as a ground electrode.
• the top electrode 25 may comprise similar materials as the bottom and middle electrodes 21 and 23, for example Al .
• Figure 2 comprises an acoustic mirror 31 which acoustically isolates vibrations produced by the piezoelectric layers 22 and 24 from the substrate 10.
• the acoustic mirror 31 shown in Fig. 2 also comprises three layers, namely a top layer 31a, a middle layer 31b, and a bottom layer 31c.
• Each layer 31a, 31b and 31c has a thickness that is, by example, approximately equal to one quarter wavelength of the resonance frequency of the resonator.
• the top layer 31a and bottom layer 31c are made of materials having low acoustic impedances such as, by example, silicon oxide (Si0 2 ) , poly-silicon, aluminum (Al) , or a polymer.
• the middle layer 31b is made of a material having a high acoustic impedance such as, by example, gold (Au) , molybdenum (Mo) , or tungsten (W) .
• Au gold
• Mo molybdenum
• W tungsten
• a membrane or tuning layer may also be provided between the acoustic mirror 31 and the electrode 21 of the device 50, if needed for tuning the device 50 to enable it to provide desired frequency response characteristics .
• a problem encountered with solidly mounted Bulk- Acoustic-Devices is that the acoustic isolation of the resonator by the acoustic mirror is not complete and that therefore a part of the acoustic energy leaks into the substrate an is reflected from the bottom surface of the substrate back up to the resonator. This phenomena causes ripples in the filter's passband, deteriorating it's performance. For some frequencies, depending on the thickness of the substrate, the substrate may even form an acoustic cavity, which increases the negative effects on the resonators .
• bridge type BAW-resonators in the filter devices.
• Such resonators use an air gap underneath the resonator to acoustically isolate it.
• the costs for fabricating such bridge- type BAW resonators is much higher than for those using acoustic mirrors.
• the use of bridge-type resonators puts further constraints regarding suitable packaging of such filter devices .
• the present invention provides a filter device comprising:
• a substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface; b) at least one acoustic wave filter in contact with the top surface of the substrate,
• bottom surface of the substrate is roughened to reduce the reflection of an acoustic wave back to the acoustic wave filter.
• the effect achieved by the roughening of the bottom surface of the substrate is that an acoustic wave which is generated by the acoustic wave filter and reaches the bottom surface of the substrate, is basically scattered at the roughened bottom surface. Accordingly the portion of the acoustic wave that is actually reflected back to the acoustic wave device is reduced which, in turn, improves the performance characteristics of the acoustic wave filter. In that manner, the acoustic wave filter may reach performance levels similar to those of a bridge-type filter but avoids the disadvantages of bridge-type filters with regard to the production complexity.
• the substrate can be made of any material usually used as substrates in micro-chip technology, especially CMOS- technology.
• the substrate is a silicon substrate. This has the advantage that silicon substrates are fully compatible with standard CMOS-technology.
• the top surface of the substrate is that surface of the substrate on which the acoustic wave filter is formed.
• the acoustic wave device can either be directly formed on the top surface of the substrate or additional layers, such as, for instance, tuning layers can be interposed between the acoustic wave device and the substrate. In both alternatives the acoustic wave device is in the context of the present invention considered to be "in contact" with the top surface of the substrate.
• the average height difference between the peaks and the valleys on the roughened bottom surface of the substrate is larger than 0,2 ⁇ , preferably larger than 0,5 ⁇ .
• ⁇ is the wavelength of the acoustic wave that is generated by the acoustic wave filter.
• the average lateral distance between the peaks and the valleys on the roughened bottom surface of the substrate is smaller than 3 ⁇ , preferably smaller than 2 ⁇
• the acoustic wave filter is a Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter comprising at least one Bulk Acoustic Wave resonator.
• the acoustic wave filter is a Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter comprising at least one Staked-Crystal-Filter (SCF) .
• BAW Bulk Acoustic Wave
• SCF Staked-Crystal-Filter
• the acoustic filter device further comprises at least one acoustic mirror which is preferably arranged between the acoustic wave filter and the top surface of the substrate.
• the acoustic mirror comprises only two pairs of mirror-layers and each pair of said mirror-layers comprises a layer of a material having a high acoustic impedance and a layer of a material having a low acoustic impedance and both pairs of mirror-layers are arranged in respect to each other such that the two layers of material having a high acoustic impedance are separated by one layer of material having a low acoustic impedance .
• the filter devices according to the present invention allow a significant reduction of the number of mirror layers necessary to acoustically isolate the substrate from the acoustic wave filter. I may even be possible to omit the acoustic mirror completely.
• the reduction of the number of mirror layers used reduces the cost of the filter device and furthermore makes it possible that the acoustic mirror is optimized regarding other parameters than reduction of reflection within the substrate, such as, for instance, temperature behavior.
• a method for fabricating a filter device comprising the steps of a) providing a substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface, b) forming at least one acoustic wave filter device on the top surface of the substrate, and c) roughening the bottom surface of the substrate such that the reflection of an acoustic wave back to the acoustic wave filter is reduced.
• steps a) , b) and c) are performed in this sequence, it also possible that the roughening step c) is carried out before forming step b) . Furthermore, it is preferred that the roughening step c) is carried out simultaneously with the thinning of the substrate. In this case no additional process step and especially no additional etching step is necessary. This again is very cost-effective.
• the roughening is achieved by mechanical roughening, most preferably by sanding.
• the roughening can be achieved by using conventional sanding equipment such as a plate sander. Additionally, especially adapted chemical- mechanical-polishing processes can be used.
• the degree of roughness can be controlled by the use of corresponding abrasive grains during the roughening step.
• the roughening is achieved by etching, preferably wet etching (e.g. HN0 3 or HF) . But any other method by which the bottom surface of the substrate can be roughened to the required surface roughness is also suitable.
• the acoustic wave filter is a Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter comprising at least one Bulk Acoustic Wave resonator.
• the acoustic wave filter is a Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter comprising at least one Staked- Crystal-Filter (SCF) .
• BAW Bulk Acoustic Wave
• SCF Staked- Crystal-Filter
• step b) comprises forming an acoustic mirror to be situated between the top surface of the substrate and the resonator or Stacked-Crystal-Filter (SCF) of the acoustic wave filter.
• the acoustic mirror is preferably made of mirror-layers as already described above in connection with the filter devices according to the present invention.
• the substrate is a silicon substrate such as a silicon wafer.
• Fig. 1 shows schematically a cross-section of an exemplary Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonator that includes an acoustic mirror;
• BAW Bulk Acoustic Wave
• Fig. 2 shows schematically a cross-section of an exemplary solidly-mounted Stacked Crystal Filter (SCF) that includes an acoustic mirror;
• SCF Stacked Crystal Filter
• Fig. 3 shows a filter device according to a first embodiment of the present invention
• Fig. 4a and b show a schematic comparison of acoustic wave reflection at the bottom surface of a substrate in a) a prior art filter device and (b) in a filter device according to the present invention
• Fig. 5 shows a graph of the transmission of a 3.5- step ladder-type filter device in which the bottom surface of the substrate has not been roughened
• Fig. 6 shows a zoomed view of the passband section of the graph according to figure 5;
• Fig. 7 shows a zoomed view of the passband section of a graph of the transmission of a filter device corresponding to that of Figure 5 but in which in accordance with the present invention the bottom surface of the substrate of the filter device is roughened;
• Fig. 8 shows a graph in which the amplitude (z am ) and phase (z P ) of the impedance of a prior art filter device as a function of the frequency.
• Fig. 9 shows a graph in which the amplitude (Z am ) and phase (z ph ) of the impedance of a filter device corresponding to that of Figure 8 is shown, but in which the bottom surface of the substrate of the filter device is roughened in accordance with the present invention.
• Fig. 3 shows a shows a resonator comprised in an acoustic wave filter used in a filter device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
• resonator shown in Fig 3. is a bulk acoustic wave resonator and essentially corresponds to the one described with respect to Fig. 1 of this application.
• Corresponding reference numerals in Fig. 3 denote parts corresponding to those of Fig. 1.
• the resonator according to Fig. 3 comprises a substrate (10) in which the bottom surface of the substrate (14) has been roughened such that the reflection of an acoustic wave back to the acoustic wave filter is reduced.
• the average height difference between the peaks and the valleys on the roughened bottom surface of the substrate is larger than 0,2 ⁇ , preferably larger than 0,5 ⁇ .
• the average height difference between the peaks and the valleys is larger than 2 ⁇ m, preferably larger than 3 ⁇ m and most preferred larger than 5 ⁇ m.
• the average lateral distance between the peaks and the valleys on the roughened bottom surface of the substrate is smaller than 3 ⁇ , preferably smaller than 2 ⁇ .
• the acoustic mirror two pairs of mirror layers, each pair comprising a layer of a material having a low acoustic impedance (31a, 31c) and a layer of a material having a high acoustic impedance (31b, 3Id) .
• the number of layers in the acoustic mirror in the filter devices according to the present invention can be varied in order to optimize the mirror stack regarding properties other than the minimization of the reflection of acoustic waves in the substrate. Such a property can be temperature behavior, for instance.
• an acoustic wave filter according to present invention which corresponds to a prior art acoustic wave filter and comprising an identical acoustic mirror but which differs in the feature that the bottom surface of the substrate has been roughened will exhibit less acoustic wave reflection in the substrate than said prior art acoustic wave filter.
• FIG. 4a and b show a schematic comparison of acoustic wave reflection at the bottom surface (14) of a substrate (10) in a prior art filter device (Fig. a) and in a filter device according to the present invention (Fig. b) .
• Fig. 4a and b show a schematic comparison of acoustic wave reflection at the bottom surface (14) of a substrate (10) in a prior art filter device (Fig. a) and in a filter device according to the present invention.
• the substrate (10) has a top surface (12) and a bottom surface (14) which has not been roughened.
• the acoustic waves leaking from the acoustic wave filter (40) into the substrate (10) propagate to the bottom surface (14) and are coherently reflected at the smooth bottom surface
• the substrate at certain wavelengths Due to the coherence of the reflected waves in respect to the incoming waves the substrate at certain wavelengths forms an acoustic cavity which further amplifies the deteriorating effects due to the coupling of the reflected waves into the resonator. Contrary to this, in the filter device according to the present invention shown in Fig. 4b the bottom surface (14) of the substrate (10) has been roughened. Acoustic waves leaking from the acoustic wave filter (40) and reaching the bottom surface (14) are scattered in all directions at the roughened surface . Accordingly, the portion of the acoustic wave that is actually reflected back to the acoustic wave device is reduced. Therefore, the negative effects caused by the reflection of acoustic waves back to the acoustic wave filter are avoided in the filter devices according to the present invention.
• Fig. 5 to 9 show a comparison of the results of different measurements on filter devices in which the substrate of the filter device has been roughened in accordance with the present invention and the same filter devices without said roughening of the bottom surface of the substrate of the filter device.
• the measurements were carried out on 900 MHz resonators.
• the bottom surface of the substrate was roughened using a conventional plate sander which is normally used in woodwork.
• Figure 5 shows the transmission of a 3.5 step ladder type filter device as a function of the frequency.
• the measurement was carried out using a suitable method to measure the S 2 ⁇ ⁇ component of the scattering matrix of the filter device.
• the definition of the scattering matrix of a filter device is known to the person skilled in the art and can for instance be found in "Zinke, Brunswig;
• the bottom surface of the substrate of the filter device was not roughened prior to the measurement of the transmission.
• the transmission shows numerous ripples in the frequency range from about 920 to 965 MHz. These ripples deteriorate the performance of the filter.
• the transmission shows no such ripples in the passband-section and therefore shows an improved performance as compared to the filter devices in which the bottom surface of the substrate of the filter device is not roughened.
• Figure 8 relates to a filter device without a roughened bottom surface of the substrate of the filter device
• Figure 9 relates to the corresponding filter device in which the bottom surface of the substrate of the filter device is roughened according to the present invention.
• the Su- component of the filter device according to the present invention does not exhibit any substantial ripples in both amplitude (Z am ) and phase (z ph ) , whereas the performance of the filter device which has not been roughened shows is deteriorated by the ripples in both amplitude (z ⁇ ) and phase (z ph ) of the Su-component, especially in the range between about 935 MHz to 950 MHz.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Crystallography & Structural Chemistry (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Piezo-Electric Or Mechanical Vibrators, Or Delay Or Filter Circuits (AREA)

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• 2001
  • 2001-11-06 DE DE60140319T patent/DE60140319D1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 2001-11-06 JP JP2003543190A patent/JP3987036B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2001-11-06 WO PCT/EP2001/012826 patent/WO2003041273A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2001-11-06 EP EP01274644A patent/EP1454412B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
• 2004
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