Disclosure of Invention
The present invention has been made to alleviate or solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art.
According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a bulk acoustic wave resonator including:
a substrate;
an acoustic mirror;
a bottom electrode disposed over the substrate;
a top electrode; and
a piezoelectric layer disposed above the bottom electrode and between the bottom electrode and the top electrode,
wherein:
the overlapping area of the acoustic mirror, the bottom electrode, the piezoelectric layer and the top electrode in the thickness direction of the resonator forms an effective area of the resonator;
one side of the top electrode is provided with an electrode connecting part, and the other side of the top electrode is provided with an air wing structure; and is
The piezoelectric layer is provided with a recessed structure having an inner edge and an outer edge.
Optionally, in a perpendicular projection, the recessed structure is located inside an edge of the acoustic mirror.
Optionally, in a vertical projection, an inner edge of the recessed structure coincides with an edge of the air foil structure.
Optionally, in a vertical projection, an edge of the air wing structure is located between an inner edge and an outer edge of the recessed structure, or the outer edge of the recessed structure coincides with the edge of the air wing structure, or the recessed structure is located between the edge of the air wing structure and the edge of the top electrode, or the inner edge of the recessed structure coincides with the edge of the top electrode. Further optionally, in a perpendicular projection, a radial distance X between an inner edge of the recessed structure and an edge of the top electrode is not greater than 10 μm. In a vertical projection, the radial distance X between the recessed structure and the top electrode edge may be: 0-10 μm, further, X is more than or equal to 0 μm and less than or equal to 1 μm, or X is more than or equal to 2.5 μm and less than or equal to 4.5 μm, or X is more than or equal to 6 μm and less than or equal to 8 μm. Further optionally, the air foil structure has a void height of 0.02 μm to 0.5 μm.
Optionally, in a vertical projection, an edge of the top electrode is located between an inner edge and an outer edge of the recessed structure; or the outer edge of the recessed structure coincides with the edge of the top electrode; or the outer edge of the recessed structure is located inside the edge of the top electrode.
Optionally, the recessed feature comprises a recess. The recess may be a stepped recess.
Optionally, the recessed feature has at least two recesses. The at least two recesses may be spaced apart from each other in a radial direction.
Optionally, in a vertical projection, an outer edge of the recessed structure is located inside an edge of the bottom electrode.
Optionally, in a perpendicular projection, an outer edge of the recessed structure is located inside an edge of the acoustic mirror.
Optionally, the electrode connecting part is formed with a bridge part; and the recessed structure is a shape recessed structure.
Optionally, the width of the recessed structure ranges from 0.5 μm to 4 μm, or is one quarter or odd multiple of the wavelength of the S1 mode lamb wave at the parallel resonance frequency; the depth range of the concave structure is 0.02-0.5 μm, or 5-100% of the thickness of the piezoelectric layer, and further 10-40%.
Embodiments of the present invention also relate to a filter comprising the bulk acoustic wave resonator described above.
Embodiments of the invention also relate to an electronic device comprising a filter as described above or a resonator as described above.
Detailed Description
The technical scheme of the invention is further specifically described by the following embodiments and the accompanying drawings. In the specification, the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar components. The following description of the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings is intended to explain the general inventive concept of the present invention and should not be construed as limiting the invention.
A bulk acoustic wave resonator having a piezoelectric layer with a recess structure according to an embodiment of the present invention is exemplarily described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 2 shows a schematic top view of a bulk acoustic wave resonator according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 2, the resonator includes a substrate 00, a bottom electrode 20 located on the substrate, a piezoelectric layer 30 located on the bottom electrode and the substrate, a recessed structure 31 (a channel portion shown by hatching) located on an upper surface of the piezoelectric layer, a top electrode 40 located on the piezoelectric layer, and a pin (i.e., an electrode connecting portion) 43 of the top electrode.
The pins of the acoustic reflecting structure (acoustic mirror) and the bottom electrode on the upper surface of the substrate are not shown in fig. 2.
The function of the recess structure is exemplarily described below with reference to fig. 2A. As shown in fig. 2A, the upper surface of the piezoelectric layer 30 has a recessed structure 31 that forms two mismatched acoustic impedance boundaries B1 and B2 in the piezoelectric layer. When the sound wave laterally propagates from the active acoustic region (not shown) to the right of B1 to the B1 or B2 region, it is reflected back to the resonator active region, thereby reducing energy leakage.
The embodiment of the present invention correspondingly proposes the following technical solutions, as shown in fig. 2, fig. 3A to fig. 3H, and fig. 4A to fig. 4H:
a bulk acoustic wave resonator comprising:
a substrate 00;
an acoustic mirror 10;
a bottom electrode 20 disposed over the substrate 00;
a top electrode 40; and
a piezoelectric layer 30 disposed over the bottom electrode and between the bottom electrode and the top electrode,
wherein:
the overlapping area of the acoustic mirror, the bottom electrode, the piezoelectric layer and the top electrode in the thickness direction of the resonator constitutes an effective area AR of the resonator (see fig. 1);
the top electrode has an electrode connection 43 on one side (see fig. 2) and an air foil structure on the other side (see, for example, fig. 3A, which has boundaries D1 and T1, boundary T1 also constituting the edge of the top electrode); and is
The piezoelectric layer is provided with a recessed structure 31, the recessed structure 31 having an inner edge (the side of the recessed structure close to the active area) and an outer edge (the side of the recessed structure far from the active area).
Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a technical effect of a bulk acoustic wave resonator according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, in the present invention, when the resonator is operated, the reflection structure A formed by the air foil and the reflection structure B formed by the concave structure not only vibrate respectively, but also can respectively leak part of the sound wave energy (Q) out of the boundary T1 laterallyAAnd QB) Reflecting back to the effective area of the resonator, and finally forming tuning fork-like resonance as a result of mutual influence between the structures A and B due to strong acoustic coupling relationship between the structures A and B, and additionally reflecting a part of energy Q when the two structures form the coupling structure after being properly matched togetherA+BThen the total reflected energy Q is QA+QB+QA+BIs greater than QA+QB. Therefore, the lifting effect of the air wing and the recess on the Q value after combination is higher than the simple superposition of the reflection effect of the suspending wing and the recess sound wave.
Therefore, in the present invention, not only the concave structure and the air wing structure can reflect the sound waves laterally propagating beyond the boundary T1 back into the sandwich region, respectively, but also the concave structure and the air wing structure together form a tuning fork-like structure, which can further reflect the sound waves and reduce energy leakage, thereby improving the Q value.
In the present invention, the material of the substrate 00 can be selected from, but not limited to: single crystal silicon, gallium arsenide, quartz, sapphire, silicon carbide, and the like.
In the present invention, the materials of the electrodes 20 and 40 can be selected from, but not limited to: molybdenum, ruthenium, gold, aluminum, magnesium, tungsten, copper, titanium, iridium, osmium, chromium, or a composite or alloy thereof.
In the present invention, the material of the piezoelectric layer 30 can be selected from, but not limited to: aluminum nitride, zinc oxide, lead zirconate titanate (PZT), lithium niobate and the like, and optionally, rare earth element impurities with a certain proportion can be doped into the material.
In the present invention, the piezoelectric layer is a thin film having a thickness of less than 10 microns, has a single crystal or polycrystalline microstructure, and can be made by a sputtering or deposition process.
In the present invention, the acoustic mirror 10 is not limited to the acoustic mirror structure shown in the example.
FIG. 3A is a partial cross-sectional view of a portion of the left side of boundary S1 taken along section A1-A2 in FIG. 2, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
In the structure of fig. 3A, the acoustic mirror (or acoustic reflection structure) 10 is located on the upper surface of the substrate 00 and has a left side boundary C1, the top electrode 40 has a left side boundary T1, and the upper surface of the piezoelectric layer 30 is embedded with a recess structure 31, which is a rectangular ABCD. It should be noted that the shape of the concave structure 31 is not limited thereto, and may be, for example, an inverted trapezoidal cross section based on practical application or practical manufacturing process.
Recessed feature 31 has a width W30 and a depth H30. Further, in fig. 3A, the right side CD (inner edge) of the recessed feature 31 coincides with the boundary D1 of the air foil feature.
The width W30 (see fig. 3A) of the recessed features ranges from 0.5 micron to 4 microns, further from 1 micron to 3 microns, and can be 2 microns in addition to the above endpoints; or one quarter or an odd multiple of the wavelength of the S1 mode lamb wave at the parallel resonance frequency.
The depth H30 (see fig. 3A) of the recessed features ranges from 0.02 microns to 0.5 microns, and further ranges from 0.1 microns to 0.3 microns, and can be 0.2 microns in addition to the above endpoints.
In the present invention, the depth of the recessed structure is the maximum depth of the recessed structure; and the width of the concave structure is the width of the top opening of the concave structure.
The S1 mode lamb wave wavelength λ at the resonator parallel resonance frequency is briefly described below. When the bulk acoustic wave resonator is operated, a large amount of vibrations are generated in the sandwich structure, and if these vibrations are plotted as dispersion curves according to the relationship between the frequency (f) and the wave number (k), curves of multiple modes can be obtained, wherein the curve of 1 mode is referred to as S1 mode (the curves of the remaining modes are not shown in fig. 8), and has a dispersion curve having the shape shown in fig. 8, wherein the abscissa is the wave number and the ordinate is the vibration frequency. The vibration frequency being the parallel resonance frequency f
pWhen the corresponding wave number is k
pAnd the wavelength λ of the S1 mode is defined as:
in FIG. 3A, the inner edge of the recessed feature coincides with the edge D1 of the air foil feature, however, the recessed feature may be located elsewhere.
As shown in fig. 3B, in a vertical projection, the edge of the air foil structure is located within the recessed structure.
As shown in fig. 3C, in perpendicular projection, the outer edge of the recessed feature coincides with the edge of the air foil feature.
As shown in fig. 3D, the recessed structure is located between the edge of the air foil structure and the edge of the top electrode in a vertical projection.
As shown in fig. 3E, in a vertical projection, the inner edge of the recessed structure coincides with the edge of the top electrode.
As shown in fig. 3F, in a vertical projection, the edge of the top electrode is located between the inner edge and the outer edge of the recessed structure.
As shown in fig. 3G, in a vertical projection, the outer edge of the recessed structure coincides with the edge of the top electrode.
As shown in fig. 3H, the outer edge of the recessed structure is located inside the edge of the top electrode in vertical projection.
Furthermore, although not shown, in a perpendicular projection, the inner edge of the recessed feature may be located outside the edge D1 of the air foil structure.
In addition, although not shown, the recess structure may be filled with other materials, and the filling material may be a non-metal such as silicon dioxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, or the like, or a metal such as titanium, molybdenum, magnesium, aluminum, or the like.
The effect of the distance between the recessed structure and the edge of the top electrode on the Q-value of the resonator is described below. Fig. 6 is a schematic structural view of a bulk acoustic wave resonator according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, in which a width of a recess structure is D1, a depth is H1, a distance between an inner edge of the recess structure and an edge of a top electrode is X1, and fig. 7 shows a graph of parallel resonance impedance (Rp) with a radial distance X1 between the recess structure and the edge of the top electrode.
In fig. 7, X1 varied over a range of 0-7 microns, with each variation stepped by 0.5 microns. The other 2 parameters D and H are fixed to 2 sets. Each time X1 changes, both D1 and H1 remained unchanged, specifically, fig. 5 shows the following three sets of change data:
(1) d is 1um, H is 1000A, and the parallel resonant impedance Rp1 is varied with X1.
(2) D1 um, H3000A, and the parallel resonant impedance Rp2 is varied with X1.
Comparing the above data with the result Rp0 of the parallel resonance impedance of a known resonator without a pit structure and plotting, a graph shown in fig. 7 can be obtained (a higher Rp value indicates a higher Q value of the resonator, and the better the performance).
From the results of fig. 7, it can be seen that the performance of the resonator with the recess structure in the Q-value sense is higher than that of the conventional resonator without the recess structure in most of the range of X. And in some value intervals of X, the recessed structure can significantly improve the Q value of the resonator, for example, at X1 ═ 0 micrometers, and X1 ═ 3.5 micrometers, and the like.
In view of the above, in embodiments of the present invention, X1 is not greater than 10 microns, further ranges are 0 μm ≦ X1 ≦ 1 μm, or 2.5 μm ≦ X1 ≦ 4.5 μm, or 6 μm ≦ X1 ≦ 8 μm. Accordingly, the air foil structure has a void height of 0.02 μm to 0.5 μm.
It should be noted that the recessed structure is not limited to be disposed on the upper side of the piezoelectric layer (as shown in fig. 3B), but may be disposed on the lower side of the piezoelectric layer, or between the upper and lower sides, or may penetrate through the piezoelectric layer in the thickness direction of the resonator (for example, similarly, see the recessed structure 31 in fig. 4F).
Further, the recess structure may also be a stepped recess (e.g., similarly, see recess structure 31 in fig. 4G). Specifically, the recessed structure 31 has components of different depths. The stepped recess not only increases the number of acoustic impedance mismatched boundaries, but also enriches the reflection wavelength.
In the example of fig. 3A to 3H, the recess structure is a single recess structure, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The recess structure may also include at least two recesses (e.g., similarly, see recesses 31 and 32 in fig. 4H). The two recesses may be spaced apart from each other in the radial direction by a distance. It should be noted that the widths of the two recesses may be the same or different; furthermore, the depths of the two recesses may also differ from each other.
FIG. 4A is a partial cross-sectional view of a portion of the right side of boundary S2 taken along section A1-A2 in FIG. 2, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the electrode connecting portion 43 is formed with a bridge portion (i.e., an arch portion in the drawing); and the recess structure 31 is an annular recess structure (see an annular shape in fig. 2) passing through the electrode connecting portion 43.
As shown in fig. 4A, the acoustic mirror 10 has a right side boundary C2, the top electrode 40 has a right side boundary T2, the top electrode has an electrode connecting structure (i.e., a pin) 43, the electrode connecting structure 43 has a curved bridge structure, and the upper surface of the piezoelectric layer 30 is provided with a recessed structure 31. In fig. 4A, the edge or boundary T2 of the top electrode is located between the inner and outer edges of the recessed structure in vertical projection. However, the recessed feature may be in other locations.
The left side edge of the recessed feature 31 (the inner edge of the recessed feature) coincides with the boundary C2.
As shown in fig. 4B, in a vertical projection, the outer edge of the recessed structure coincides with the edge of the top electrode.
As shown in fig. 4C, the outer edge of the recessed structure is inside the edge of the top electrode in vertical projection.
As shown in fig. 4D, in the vertical projection, the inner edge of the recessed structure coincides with the edge of the top electrode.
As shown in fig. 4E, in the perpendicular projection, the recessed structure is located between the edge of the top electrode and the edge of the acoustic mirror.
Further, although not shown, the inner edge of the recessed structure may be located outside the edge of the acoustic mirror.
Referring to fig. 3A-3H, in an alternative embodiment, the outer edge of the recessed feature is located inside the edge of the bottom electrode in vertical projection.
In an alternative embodiment, the outer edge of the recessed structure is located inside the edge of the bottom electrode
Optionally, in a perpendicular projection, an outer edge of the recessed structure is located inside an edge of the acoustic mirror.
In the embodiment of the invention, the width of the concave structure ranges from 0.5 μm to 4 μm, or is one quarter or odd multiple of the wavelength of S1 mode lamb wave at the parallel resonance frequency; and the depth range of the concave structure is 0.02-0.5 μm.
In the present invention, the expression "perpendicular projection" is used, as shown in fig. 3A, and it is understood that the projection is made in the thickness direction of the resonator, for example, in fig. 3A, the dotted line or the boundaries C1 and T1 may also be regarded as a perpendicular projection line. The term "overlap" in the present invention is on the same vertical projection line, or substantially on the same vertical projection line. The "edge" in the present invention is the outermost edge or the innermost edge of the corresponding component.
Although not shown, embodiments of the present invention also relate to a filter including the bulk acoustic wave resonator described above.
Embodiments of the invention also relate to an electronic device comprising a resonator as described above or a filter as described above.
Although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.