Sc0.15Al0.

85N-based 4 GHz Coupled Bulk Acoustic Resonators (CBAR) and Filters for the Single-
Chip Duplexer Solution
Chen Liu, Yao Zhu, Nan Wang, Bangtao Chen, Institutes of Microelectronics, A*STAR, Singapore

Background, Motivation and Objective

In the radio frequency (RF) wireless communication area, currently the bulk acoustic wave (BAW)
technology is dominating the high-band filtering market. However, the resonant frequency of BAW
resonator is dependent on the film stack thickness, leading to the challenge that filters for different bands
are fabricated on different wafers, increasing the connection complexity and the board area when trying
to assembly multiple filters on the same PCB. Though resonators with lithographically frequency-
tunable capability, such as Lamb wave mode resonators, have been proposed, the poor effective
coupling coefficient (k2eff) of these structures will lead to unacceptable low bandwidth for the filtering
applications. In this work, a thickness and lateral mode coupled film acoustic resonator (CBAR)
structure is proposed and demonstrated using 15% Sc doped AlN films, delivering single-chip
resonators with resonant frequency ranging from 3.5 GHz to 4.3 GHz and high k2eff around 12%. Filters
for two adjacent frequency bands around 4 GHz with high bandwidth are demonstrated, indicating the
great potential for the single-chip duplexing solution.
Statement of Contribution/Methods
As shown in Fig. 1(a), the Sc0.15Al0.85N-based coupled mode resonators comprise of Mo-based
interdigital electrode fingers for both top and bottom electrodes, and fingers on the same surface are
applied with the same signal polarity. The thickness of the Mo/Sc0.15Al0.85N/Mo film stack is 0.1 m/0.6
m/0.15 m. The pitch of the top and bottom interdigital fingers is identical, ranging from 0.5 m to 2
m and the width of the fingers is half of the pitch. Two-dimentional Finite Element Modeling (FEM) is
utilized to simulate the designed resonators and the fabricated resonators and filters are electrically
characterized.
Results/Discussion
Fig.1 (b) depicts the FEM simulation results of the designed CBAR resonators with various pitches.
Both resonant frequency and the k2eff decreases with the increase of the pitch. Simulated k2eff of the
CBAR is around 12% because of the mode coupling between the thickness and lateral modes. Fig. 1
(c) depicts the measured impedance plots of the fabricated CBAR resonators on a single wafer. The
k2eff of resonators with different pitches ranges from 10% to as high as 20%. The insertion loss of the
filters with adjacent passbands around 4 GHz is plotted in Fig.1 (d). The 3dB-bandwidth is 191 MHz
and 155 MHz, respectively. The measurement results indicate that the proposed CBAR resonator is a
promising candidate for single-chip duplexing solutions in 5G communication.

Figure.1 (a) The schematic cross-section of the double-patterned CBAR resonators and the microscopic
image of the fabricated filter; (b) Simulated impedance response of the double-patterned CBAR
resonators with various electrode pitches; (c) Measured impedance response of the fabricated CBAR
resonators with several selected electrode pitches; (d) Measured insertion loss (S21) of the fabricated
CBAR filters for duplexing applications.