X-Cut Lithium Niobate-Based Shear Horizontal Resonators for Radio Frequency Applications

• Published in: Journal of microelectromechanical systems Vol. 29; no. 6; pp. 1464 - 1472
• Main Authors: Kochhar, Abhay, Mahmoud, Ashraf, Shen, Yuyi, Turumella, Nihar, Piazza, Gianluca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.12.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: acoustic wave resonators; Figure of merit; Lithium niobate; Lithium niobates; Radio frequency; Resonant frequency; Resonators; shear horizontal (SH0); Silicon; Surface acoustic wave devices; temperature coefficient of frequency
• ISSN: 1057-7157; 1941-0158
• DOI: 10.1109/JMEMS.2020.3026167

This article reports Lithium Niobate (LN) based shear horizontal (SH0) resonators utilizing suspended and solidly mounted structures for radio frequency (RF) applications. The solidly mounted SH0 structure (also termed guided SH0 structure) is advantageous in obtaining reduced temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF), reduced high frequency overtone spurious responses, and improved power handling. The demonstrated solidly mounted guided SH0 resonators exhibit a mechanical Q as high as 1316 around 950 MHz, and electromechanical coupling factor (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{k} _{\mathrm {t}}^{\mathrm {2}} </tex-math></inline-formula>) of around 21.8 % - resulting in a figure of merit (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mathrm {FoM}=k_{\mathrm {t}}^{\mathrm {2}}\cdot \mathrm {Q} </tex-math></inline-formula>) of 288.