Improved resonance characteristics by thermal annealing of W/SiO2 multi-layers in film bulk acoustic wave resonator devices

Abstract

In this paper, we, for the first time, present the effects of the thermal annealing of the W/SiO2 multi-layer Bragg reflectors on the resonance characteristics of the ZnO-based film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR) devices. In order to improve the resonance characteristics of the FBAR devices, we employed a thermal annealing process after the Bragg reflectors were formed on a silicon substrate using a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. As a result, the resonance characteristics of the FBAR devices were observed to strongly depend on the annealing conditions applied to the Bragg reflectors. The FBAR devices with the Bragg reflectors annealed at 400degreesC/30 min showed excellent resonance characteristics as compared to those with the non-annealed (as-deposited) Bragg reflectors. The newly proposed simple thermal annealing process will be very useful to more effectively improve the resonance characteristics of the future FBAR devices with multilayer Bragg reflectors.