Study of the Performance Enhancement of Sc-Doped AlN Super High Frequency Cross-Sectional Lamé Mode Resonators

Abstract

The increasing use of mobile broadband requires new acoustic filtering technologies that can operate efficiently at frequencies above 6 GHz. Previous research has shown that AlN Super High Frequency (SHF) Cross-Sectional Lamé Mode resonators (CLMRs) can address this challenge, but their performance is limited by the piezoelectric strength of AlN. In this work, we explore the use of substitutional doping of Al in AlN with Sc to enhance the kt2 values of SHF CLMRs. Our results showed that the measured kt2·Qm product of Al72Sc28N CLMRs was four times greater than that of AlN CLMRs operating at the same frequency. Additionally, the measured fractional bandwidth (FWB) of Al72Sc28N 2nd order ladder filters was 4.13%, a fourfold improvement over AlN filters with the same design. We also discuss other aspects of the technology, such as power handling, losses, and spurious mode suppression, and identify potential areas for future research.