Process optimization and device variation of Mg-doped ZnO FBARs

• Published in: Solid-state electronics 2019-01, Vol.151, p.11-17
• Main Authors: Duan, Franklin Li, Yang, Zhi, Ji, Zhonglin, Weng, Haotian, Xie, Ziyi, Shen, Allegro, Mi, Shijie, Chen, Xi, Chen, Yigang, Liu, Qianhui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bulk wave effects & devices; FBAR; Piezoelectric; RF resonator
• ISSN: 0038-1101; 1879-2405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sse.2018.10.015

•Although FBAR has already been used in industry product, study on RF performance on designs/process variations is still missing.•In this report various FBARs were designed, fabricated and analyzed to study wafer-level site-to-site RF variation on design and fabrication process.•Wafer-level and wafer-to-wafer variation of the device frequency response are fairly homogenous with the resonance frequency of the FBAR devices target ranging from 1.8 to 2.1 Ghz.•Simulation verified that this frequency variation correlates to the piezoelectric film variation of 1.6–1.9 μm variation. Thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) plays a very important role in radio frequency (RF) filters used in cell phone and other wireless systems. Although FBAR is commercialized, the design/process interactions on the frequency response variation in FBAR device are still lacking. Design and fabrication are two crucial aspects affecting FBAR device performance. In this report, various solidly mounted resonators (SMR) were designed, fabricated and analyzed to study wafer-level site-to-site RF variation on design and fabrication process. As a key process step for SMR FBAR, the optimization process of Mg-doped ZnO piezoelectric thin film deposition was studied by varying thin film sputtering conditions using various sputtering targets and by post annealing treatment after the deposition. The quality of this crucial layer was verified by XRD on its (0 0 2) crystallization and wafer-level FBAR RF characterization. FBAR devices with high quality were fabricated with an excellent resonant behavior near 2 GHz and a maximum return loss of −15 to 25 dB. Quality factor Q ranges from 400 to 800, with a coupling coefficient keff2 of 1.5–3%. Wafer-level and wafer-to-wafer variation of central frequency are within 1.8–2.1 GHz. Computer simulation verified that this frequency variation correlates to the piezoelectric film variation of 1.6–1.9 μm. Process control on this piezoelectric thin film is essential to maintaining the resonator frequency-controlled value when building duplexer RF circuits. The dependency of RF performance on FBAR size, density and orientation is not obvious, compared to that of the wafer-level FBAR device variation on fabrication process. Regarding to the Mg-doping effect in MgxZn1-xO piezoelectric film, the amount of Mg in MgxZn1-xO film during the sputtering process must be properly controlled within 30% to keep the piezoelectric quality. The average acoustic speed of the M