Piezoelectric properties of ScAlN thin films for piezo-MEMS devices

Abstract

This paper reports the piezoelectric properties of ScAlN thin films. We evaluated the piezoelectric coefficients d <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">33</sub> and d <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">31</sub> of Sc <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1-x</sub> N thin films directly deposited onto silicon wafers, as well the radio frequency (RF) electrical characteristics of Sc <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.35</sub> Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.65</sub> N bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators at around 2 GHz, and found a maximum value for d <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">33</sub> of 28 pC/N and a maximum -d <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">31</sub> of 13 pm/V at 40% scandium concentration. In BAW resonators that use Sc <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.35</sub> Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.65</sub> N as a piezoelectric film, the electromechanical coupling coefficient k <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> (=15.5%) was found to be 2.6 times that of resonators with AlN films. These experimental results are in very close agreement with first-principles calculations. The large electromechanical coupling coefficient and high sound velocity of these films should make them suitable for high frequency applications.