The Impact of Damping on Flicker Frequency Noise of AlN Piezoelectric MEMS Resonators

• Published in: Journal of microelectromechanical systems Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 317 - 324
• Main Authors: Hoe Joon Kim, Segovia-Fernandez, Jeronimo, Piazza, Gianluca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.04.2017
• Subjects: 1/f noise; Aluminum nitride; Aluminum nitride contour mode resonator; anchor losses; Damping; Electrodes; flicker noise; III-V semiconductor materials; Noise measurement; phase noise; piezoelectric resonators; Resonant frequency
• ISSN: 1057-7157; 1941-0158
• DOI: 10.1109/JMEMS.2017.2653938

This paper presents a detailed study on the effect of damping on flicker frequency (1/f) noise of 1.1-GHz aluminum nitride (AlN) contour mode resonators (CMRs). A total of 52 different AlN CMRs with different sizes, electrode designs, and anchor types are systemically designed and fabricated to give a wide range of quality factors (Q) from 300 to 3500, allowing the study of how two major damping mechanisms in AlN CMRs: 1) anchor losses; and 2) thermoelastic damping affect the resonator 1/f noise. In total, we have measured 1/f noise of 104 CMRs using the modified homodyne noise measurement setup and the results confirm that 1/f noise shows a clear power law dependency ranging from 1/Q 2.7 to 1/Q 3.5 , depending on the main nature of the damping mechanism. Additionally, we have measured 1/f noise of 25 CMRs at 10 K and the results follow the trend observed at ambient temperature. Understanding and accounting for the effect of damping on 1/f noise are crucial for building ultra-low noise microelectromechanical systems resonators for sensing, timing, and frequency applications.