SBIR Phase I: Single Crystal Group III-Nitride Bulk Acoustic Resonators and Bulk Acoustic Wave Filter Components for Mobile Communications

这一小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目具有更广泛的影响力/商业潜力，通过创新的单晶谐振器和声波滤波器解决方案的商业化，提高了消费移动的无线设备的小型化、信号质量和电池寿命。除了消费系统，声学谐振器技术还应用于工业、医疗、网络和军事系统。预计到2016年，体声波（BAW）滤波器组件的全球市场将增长到30亿美元以上，而2011年仅为8亿美元。这种由信号融合和新分配的通信频谱的扩散驱动的快速市场增长为新的市场进入者创造了机会。该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目解决了当今射频（RF）前端对移动的无线和物联网等技术的关键组件需求。 可以说，声波滤波器已经发展成为RF前端的使能器;然而，它受到有损性能的影响。电流滤波器可将高达一半的RF发射功率作为热量耗散，从而迫使RF功率放大器显著超设计。 这增加了热管理的复杂性，并缩短了电池寿命。 因此，当前滤波器技术的低效率增加了无线设备的成本和尺寸。 为了满足这一关键需求，该公司提出了一种更高效、更低损耗的声学滤波器技术。 研究工作包括设计、仿真、材料合成以及使用实验制造工艺流程和新型电路布局制造单晶谐振器和体声波（BAW）滤波器。 所制造的谐振器将被表征为声速、声耦合和电路品质因数。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project improves miniaturization, signal quality and battery life of consumer mobile wireless devices by commercialization of innovative single crystal resonators and acoustic wave filter solutions. Beyond consumer systems, the acoustic resonator technology has applications in industrial, medical, networking and military systems. The global market for bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter components is expected to grow to over $3B by 2016 compared to just $0.8B market in 2011. Such rapid market growth, driven by signal convergence and proliferation of new allocated communications spectrum, creates the opportunity for new market entrants. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project addresses a critical component need in today's radio frequency (RF) frontends for technologies such as Mobile Wireless and The Internet of Things. Arguably, the acoustic wave filter has evolved as the enabler of the RF frontend; it suffers, however, from lossy performance. Current filters can dissipate, as heat, up to half of the RF transmit power thus forcing significant overdesign of the RF power amp. This increases the complexity of thermal management, and it reduces battery life. Thus the inefficiency of current filter technologies increase the cost and size of wireless devices. To address this critical need, the company proposes a more efficient, lower loss acoustic filter technology. The research effort includes design, simulation, materials synthesis and fabricated single crystal resonators and bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filters using an experimental fabrication process flow and novel circuit layout. The fabricated resonators will be characterized for acoustic velocity, acoustic coupling and circuit quality factor.