Surface Acoustic Wave Characteristics of a ZnO/Quartz Substrate Structure Having a Large Electromechanical Coupling Factor and a Small Temperature Coefficient

Abstract

A substrate having a suitable electromechanical coupling factor ( k s ) value and a good temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) is required for an applications of resonator surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters and rudder-type SAW filters requiring a specific bandwidth, because their bandwidth largely depends on the coupling factor of the substrate. Although a quartz substrate for SAW devices provides a good TCF, the electromechanical coupling factor obtained is small. The author speculated that an excellent TCF and an appropriate electromechanical coupling factor could be realized by combination of a quartz substrate having a positive TCF and a ZnO film having a negative TCF. As a result of theoretical and experimental investigations performed using a 29°45' rotated Y and a 42°45' rotated Y 35°X propagating quartz substrate, an excellent TCF (≈0 ppm/°C) and an appropriate coupling factor ( k s =0.1–0.11; k s 2 =0.01–0.0121) were realized with a zero degree power flow angle on the structure of IDT/ZnO/quartz or IDT/ZnO/shorted-plane/quartz for the first time.