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Sputter deposited aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films have played a central role for the successful development of the thin film electro-acoustic technology. The development has been primarily driven by one device—the thin film bulk acoustic resonator, with its primary use for high frequency filter applications for the telecom industry. Recently, increased piezoelectric properties in AlN through the alloying with scandium nitride have been identified both experimentally and theoretically. This opens up new possibilities for the thin film electro-acoustic technology. Here expectations and discussions are presented on acoustic FBAR sensor performance when based on AlN as well as on such AlN alloys to identify possible benefits and limitations. Inhere, the distinction is made between direct and in-direct (acoustic) use of the piezoelectric effect for sensor applications. These two approaches are described and compared in view of their advantages and possibilities. Especially, the indirect (or acoustic) use is identified as interesting for its versatility and good exploitation of the thin film technology to obtain highly sensitive sensor transducers. It is pointed out that the indirect approach can well be obtained internally in the piezoelectric material structure. Original calculations are presented to support the discussion.

The resonance frequency of acoustic biosensors is today used as a label-free technique for detecting mass changes on sensor surfaces. In combination with an appropriate continuous flow system it ha ...

A new type of biosensor device is here presented which is fabricated using the same processes used for the fabrication of integrated electrical circuits to enable tighter integration and further se ...

A systematic study of the mass sensitivity and its dependence on the material's properties and thicknesses in composite multilayer Thin Film Bulk Acoustic Resonators (FBAR) is presented. The Mason transmission line model has been employed in combination with the acoustic energy balance principle for the determination of the FBAR mass sensitivity. The results have been experimentally verified. Further, the mass sensitivity dependence on various parameters has been studied and correlated with wave reflection and interference within the composite structure in addition to the well-known dependence on resonator acoustic impedance and operation frequency. The mass sensitivity for both the fundamental and the second harmonic mode of operation has been studied in view of their practical relevance. In particular, sensitivity amplification induced by the presence of an on-top deposited low acoustic impedance layer has been identified for the first harmonic and its potential applicability discussed in terms of gas and in-liquid sensing. Optimized structures for both sensing applications are suggested by considering the overall sensor resolution defined by both the mass sensitivity and the FBAR performance.

An AlN thin film electro-acoustic resonator has been fabricated employing a reactive sputtering process for the deposition of an AlN thin film with inclined c -axis for excitation of the shear mode for operation in liquid media. The main objective is to investigate the efficiency of the micro-fluidic channel system integrated in the silicon wafer underneath the AlN resonator. A comparative study between the shear mode thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) and a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) using a competitive antibody–antigen association process for detection of drug molecules is presented.

In this work we demonstrate a practically complete temperature compensation of the second harmonic shear mode in a composite Al/AlN/Al/SiO2 thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) in the temperature range 25 °C–95 °C. The main advantages of this mode are its higher Q value in liquids as well as its higher frequency and hence higher resolution for sensor applications. For comparative reasons the non-compensated fundamental shear mode is also included in these studies. Both modes have been characterized when operated both in air and in pure water. Properties such as Q value, electromechanical coupling, dissipation and sensitivity are studied. An almost complete temperature compensation of the second harmonic shear mode was observed for an oxide thickness of 1.22 µm for an FBAR consisting of 2 µm thick AlN and 200 nm thick Al electrodes. Thus, the measured temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) in air for the non-compensated fundamental shear mode (1.25 GHz) varied between −31 and −36 ppm °C−1 over the above temperature range while that of the compensated second harmonic shear mode (1.32 GHz) varied between +2 ppm °C−1 and −2 ppm °C−1 over the same temperature interval. When operated in pure water the former type shows a Q value and coupling coefficient, k2t, around 180 and 2%, respectively, whereas for the second harmonic these are 230 and 1.4%, respectively.

Wide band gap materials such as SiC, AlN, GaN, ZnO, and diamond have excellent properties such as high operation temperature when used as field effect devices and a high resonating frequency of the substrate materials used in piezoelectric resonator devices. Integration of FET and resonating sensors on the same chip enables powerful miniaturized devices, which can deliver increased information about a gas mixture or complex liquid. Examples of sensor devices based on different wide band gap materials will be given.

Hydrogen sensing properties of sodium potassium niobate NaxKyNbOz (NKN) thin films were studied. The NKN thin films were prepared by reactive rf magnetron sputtering. NKN is a ferroelectric material with high dielectric constant. The polarization increases in hydrogen ambient and decreases in oxygen ambient. The conductivity of the NKN film in hydrogen ambient is higher than in oxygen ambient, and these changes are reversible. The threshold voltage of the current–voltage (I–V) characteristics depends on the hydrogen concentration, and a large response of 3.3 V was obtained.

Piezoelectric wurtzite ScxAl1-xN (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3) thin films were epitaxially grown by reactive magnetron co-sputtering from elemental Sc and Al targets. Al2O3(0001) wafers with TiN(111) seed and electrode layers were used as substrates. X-ray diffraction shows that an increase in the Sc content results in the degradation of the crystalline quality. Samples grown at 400 degrees C possess true dielectric behavior with quite low dielectric losses and the leakage current is negligible. For ScAlN samples grown at 800 degrees C, the crystal structure is poor and leakage current is high. Transmission electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy mapping shows a mass separation into ScN-rich and AlN-rich domains for x >= 0.2 when substrate temperature is increased from 400 to 800 degrees C. The piezoelectric response of epitaxial ScxAl1-xN films measured by piezoresponse force microscopy and double beam interferometry shows up to 180% increase by the addition of Sc up to x = 0.2 independent of substrate temperature, in good agreement with previous theoretical predictions based on density-functional theory. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4714220]

The non-ferroelectric polar wurtzite aluminium nitride (AlN) material has been shown to have potential for various sensor applications both utilizing the piezoelectric effect directly for pressure sensors or indirectly for acoustic sensing of various physical, chemical and biochemical sensor applications. Especially, sputter deposited AlN thin films have played a central role for successful development of the thin film electro-acoustic technology. The development has been primarily driven by one device - the thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR or TFBAR), with its primary use for high frequency filter applications for the telecom industry. AlN has been the dominating choice for commercial application due to compatibility with the integrated circuit technology, low acoustic and dielectric losses, high acoustic velocity in combination with comparably high (but still for some applications limited) electromechanical coupling. Recently, increased piezoelectric properties (and also electromechanical coupling) in the AlN through the alloying with scandium nitride (ScN) have been identified both experimentally and theoretically. Inhere, the utilization of piezoelectricity in electro-acoustic sensing will be discussed together with expectation on acoustic FBAR sensor performance with variation in piezoelectric material properties in the parameter space around AlN due to alloying, in view of the ScxAl1-xN (0

The origin of the anomalous, 400% increase of the piezoelectric coefficient in ScxAl1-xN alloys is revealed. Quantum mechanical calculations show that the effect is intrinsic. It comes from a stron ...

AlN is challenged as the material choice in important thin film electroacoustic devices for modern wireless communication applications. We present the promise of superior electromechanical coupling (kt2), in w−ScxAl1−xN by studying its dielectric properties. w−ScxAl1−xN (0≤x≤0.3) thin films grown by dual reactive magnetron sputtering exhibited low dielectric losses along with minor increased dielectric constant (ε). Ellipsometry measurements of the high frequency ε showed good agreement with density function perturbation calculations. Our data show that kt2 will improve from 7% to 10% by alloying AlN with up to 20 mol % ScN. Original Publication:Gunilla Wingqvist, Ferenc Tasnadi, Agne Zukauskaite, Jens Birch, Hans Arwin and Lars Hultman, Increased electromechanical coupling in w-ScxAl1-xN, 2010, Applied Physics Letters, (97), 11, 112902.http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3489939Copyright: American Institute of Physicshttp://www.aip.org/

AlN(0001) was alloyed with ScN with molar fractions up to ~22%, while retaining a singlecrystal wurtzite (w-) structure and with lattice parameters matching calculated values. Material synthesis was realized by magnetron sputter epitaxy of thin films starting from optimal conditions for the formation of w-AlN onto lattice-matched w-AlN seed layers on Al2O3(0001) and MgO(111) substrates. Films with ScN contents between 23% and ~50% exhibit phase separation into nanocrystalline ScN and AlN, while ScN-rich growth conditions yield a transformation to rocksalt-structure Sc1-xAlxN(111) films. The experimental results are analyzed with ion beam analysis, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy, together with ab-initio calculations of mixing enthalpies and lattice parameters of solid solutions in wurtzite, rocksalt, and layered hexagonal phases. Original Publication:Carina Höglund, Jens Birch, Björn Alling, Javier Bareño, Zsolt Czigány, Per O. Å. Persson, Gunilla Wingqvist, Agne Zukauskaite and Lars Hultman, Wurtzite-structure Sc1-xAlxN solid solution films grown by reactive magnetron sputter epitaxy: structural characterization and first-principles calculations, 2010, Journal of Applied Physics, (107), 12, 123515.http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3448235Copyright: American Institute of Physicshttp://www.aip.org/

The origin of the anomalous, 400% increase of the piezoelectric coefficient in Sc(x)Al(1-x)N alloys is revealed. Quantum mechanical calculations show that the effect is intrinsic. It comes from a strong change in the response of the internal atomic coordinates to strain and pronounced softening of C33 elastic constant. The underlying mechanism is the flattening of the energy landscape due to a competition between the parent wurtzite and the so far experimentally unknown hexagonal phases of the alloy. Our observation provides a route for the design of materials with high piezoelectric response.

The IC-compatible thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) technology has made it possible to move the thickness excited shear mode sensing of biological layers into a new sensing regime using substantially higher operation frequencies than the conventionally used quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The limitations of the linear range set by the film resonance using viscoelastic protein films are here for the first time addressed specifically for FBARs operating at 700 MHz up to 1.5 GHz. Two types of protein multilayer sensing were employed; one utilizing alternating layers of streptavidin and biotinated BSA and the other using stepwise cross-linking of fibrinogen with EDC/NHS activation of its carboxyl groups. In both cases the number of protein layers within the linear regime is well above the number of protein layers usually used in biosensor applications, further verifying the applicability of the FBAR as a biosensor. Theoretical calculations are also presented using well established physical models to illustrate the expected behavior of the FBAR sensor, in view of both the frequency and the dissipation shifts.

Micromachined thin film plate acoustic wave resonators (FPAR) utilizing the lowest order symmetric Lamb wave (S0) propagating in highly textured 2 mum thick Aluminum Nitride (AlN) membranes have been successfully demonstrated. However, a notable drawback of the proposed devices is their non-zero temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) which lies in the range -20 ppm/K to -25 ppm/K. In this work temperature compensation of thin AlN film Lamb wave resonators is studied and demonstrated. Temperature compensation, while retaining at the same time the device electromechanical coupling, is experimentally demonstrated. The zero TCF Lamb wave resonators are fabricated onto composite AlN/SiO2 membranes. Q factors of around 1400 have been measured at a frequency of around 755 MHz.

A systematic study of the influence of the materials' properties and thickness in composite thin film bulk acoustic resonators (FBAR) on the mass sensitivity is presented. Calculations based on the Mason transmission line model are presented along with some preliminary experimental results. We present and investigate the concept of sensitivity amplification in the mass sensitive regime and show how this amplification correlates with wave reflection and interference within the composite structure. Asymmetrical resonators where the sensitivity differs between the two different surfaces are also presented.

A method for the deposition of thin piezo-electric aluminum nitride (AlN) films with a nonzero c-axis mean tilt has been developed. The deposition is done in a standard reactive magnetron sputter deposition system without any hardware modifications. In essence, the method consists of a two-stage deposition process. The resulting film has a distinct tilted texture with the mean tilt of the c-axis varying roughly in the interval 28 to 32 degrees over the radius of the wafer excluding a small exclusion zone at the center of the latter. The mean tilt angle distribution over the wafer has a circular symmetry. A membrane-type shear mode thickness-excited thin film bulk acoustic resonator together with a micro-fluidic transport system has been subsequently fabricated using the two stage AlN de-position as well as standard bulk micro machining of Si. The resonator consisted of a 2-mum-thick AlN film with 200-nm-thick Al top and bottom electrodes. The resonator was characterized with a network analyzer when operating in both air and water. The shear mode resonance frequency was about 1.6 GHz, the extracted device Q around 350, and the electromechanical coupling kt 2 2% when the resonator was operated in air, whereas the latter two dropped down to 150 and 1.8%, respectively, when the resonator was operated in pure water

A thin film thickness excited shear acoustic wave resonator is presented. Utilizing a newly developed reactive sputtering process AlN thin films with inclined c-axis relative to the surface normal with a mean tilt of around 30deg are successfully grown. Using the above process, a biosensor consisting of a shear mode thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) and a microfluidic transport system was fabricated. The biosensor operation in water, glycerol and albumin was characterized. The resonator had a resonance frequency of around 1.2 GHz and a Q value in water of around 150. Results concerning the stability and resolution are also presented. The results demonstrate clearly the potential of FBAR biosensors for the fabrication of highly sensitive low cost biosensors, bioanalytical tools as well as for liquid sensing in general

Synthesis of textured thin piezoelectric AlN films with a nonzero c-axis mean tilt for the fabrication of shear mode resonators

In this work we demonstrate a practically complete temperature compensation of the second harmonic shear mode in composite AlN/SiO2 FBAR's in the temperature range 25degC to 95degC. The main advantages of this mode over the fundamental mode are its higher Q value in liquids as well as its higher frequency and hence higher resolution for sensor applications. For comparative reasons the non-compensated fundamental shear mode is also included in these studies. Both modes have been characterized when operated both in air and in pure water. Properties such Q value, electromechanical coupling, dissipation and sensitivity are studied both theoretically and experimentally. An almost full temperature compensation of the second harmonic shear mode was observed for an oxide thickness of 1.22 mum and a typical 2 mum thick AlN resonator with 200 nm thick Al electrodes. Thus, the measured TCF in air for the non-compensated fundamental shear mode (1.25 GHz) varied between -31 and -36 ppm/ degC over the above temperature range while that of the compensated second harmonic shear mode (1.32 GHz) varied between + 2 ppm/ degC and -2 ppm/ degC over the same temperature interval

Thermoelectric properties of ScN thin films grown by reactive magnetron sputtering on Al2O3(0001) wafers are reported. X-ray diffraction and elastic recoil detection analyses show that the composition of the films is close to stoichiometry with trace amounts (similar to 1 at. % in total) of C, O, and F. We found that the ScN thin-film exhibits a rather low electrical resistivity of similar to 2.94 mu Omega m, while its Seebeck coefficient is approximately similar to-86 mu V/K at 800 K, yielding a power factor of similar to 2.5 x 10(-3) W/mK(2). This value is anomalously high for common transition-metal nitrides. Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council (VR)|621-2009-5258

Micromachined thin film plate acoustic wave resonators (FPARs) utilizing the lowest order symmetric Lamb wave (S0) propagating in highly textured 2 µm thick aluminium nitride (AlN) membranes have been successfully demonstrated (Yantchev and Katardjiev 2007 IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 54 87–95). The proposed devices have a SAW-based design and exhibit Q factors of up to 3000 at a frequency around 900 MHz as well as design flexibility with respect to the required motional resistance. However, a notable drawback of the proposed devices is the non-zero temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) which lies in the range −20 ppm K−1 to −25 ppm K−1. Thus, despite the promising features demonstrated, further device optimization is required. In this work temperature compensation of thin AlN film Lamb wave resonators is studied and experimentally demonstrated. Temperature compensation while retaining at the same time the device electromechanical coupling is experimentally demonstrated. The zero TCF Lamb wave resonators are fabricated onto composite AlN/SiO2 membranes. Q factors of around 1400 have been measured at a frequency of around 755 MHz. Finally, the impact of technological issues on the device performance is discussed in view of improving the device performance.

In this work we present process modelling of reactive in-line sputtering. Although modelling of reactive sputtering is often used, most models are based on assumptions which make them insufficient for use in this case. The presented model takes into account a realistic deposition rate profile and distribution of reactive gas pressure. The model has been applied to reactive sputter deposition of graded solar thermal absorbers. It has been shown that the presented model represents a simple alternative to complex Monte Carlo simulations while still representing all important features of the process.