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

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是使针对移动无线市场的单晶压电体声波(BAW)滤波器的开发和商业化成为可能，在所有智能手机和其他无线设备中使用的关键部件中提供比现有多晶技术更必要的改进。基于单晶压电材料的这一创新的技术优势提供了关键参数的改进，这将使智能手机的消费者受益，尤其值得注意的是组件插入损耗，这将导致电池寿命延长，并降低射频前端的复杂性。此外，这项技术的商业化将解决现有技术无法满足的蜂窝部件市场需求。由于对现有知识产权的获取有限，围绕现有技术普遍缺乏竞争。根据这项SBIR开发的技术将使新的参与者能够进入这个不断增长的市场。这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将首次全面研究用于体模谐振器技术的宽带隙III族氮化物单晶材料。这项技术是射频滤波技术的基本组成部分，满足了当今射频前端的一项关键需求。这一需求源于滤波器的位置(在放大器和天线之间)和性能(由于效率低下，一半的功率损失)。因此，组件必须过度设计以适应过滤器损耗。过高的损耗降低了电池寿命，并导致系统中更高的热管理成本。为了满足这一需求，提出了一种更高效、更低损耗的体声波(BAW)滤波器，它具有更低的损耗和显著改善的性能，并在终端市场提供高回报。这项工作将继续设计和模拟单晶压电谐振器，以支持从1 GHz到6 GHz的谐振频率。采用实验性的制造工艺流程和新颖的电路设计，在150 mm的硅衬底上合成了压电材料，并制成了谐振器和体声波滤波器。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will be to enable the development and commercialization of single crystal piezoelectric Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filters targeting the mobile wireless market, providing much needed improvements over the incumbent poly-crystalline technology in critical components used in all smartphones and other wireless devices. The technical advantage based upon this innovation in single crystal piezoelectric material provides improvements in key parameters that will benefit consumers of the smartphone, of particular note are component insertion losses which will result in increased battery life and reducing the complexity of the RF front-end. Additionally, the commercialization of this technology will address cellular component market demand not being serviced with the incumbent technology. There is a general lack of competition around the incumbent technology based on limited access to existing intellectual property. The technology developed under this SBIR will enable new participants in this growing market. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will enable the first comprehensive study of wide bandgap, group III-Nitride single crystal materials for bulk mode resonator technology. This technology is the fundamental building block of RF filter technology and addresses a critical need in today's RF frontends. The need arises from the filter's location (between amplifier and antenna) and performance (half the power is lost due to inefficiencies). As a result, components must be over-designed to accommodate for the filter loss. The excessive losses degrade battery life and drive higher thermal management costs in the system. To address this need, a more efficient, lower loss Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) filter with lower losses and dramatically improved performance is proposed and offers high payoff in the end market. The effort continues the design and simulation of single-crystal piezoelectric resonators to support resonant frequencies from 1 to 6 GHz. Piezoelectric materials are synthesized on 150-mm silicon substrates and fabricated into resonators and BAW filters using an experimental fabrication process flow and novel circuit designs.