Section 2

Working principles and

Applications of SAW/FBAR Devices

History of SAW and FBAR Piezoelectric materials become deformed when an electrical field is applied.
In 1855, Surface Acoustic Waves (SAW) were mathematically founded by With this effect, waves can be generated by forming comb-shaped elec-
Lord Rayleigh. In 1965, Inter Digital Transducers (IDT) were invented by White trodes (described below as Inter Digital Transducers (IDT)), and applying signals
and Voltmer, enabling use of SAW in various filters. At first, SAW filters were to them.
used in place of LC filters at the IF stage in TVs, and they were later also
Signal
used for signal processing in radars. In 1977, just 12 years after the inven- IDT Piezoelectric material
tion of IDT, Williamson released a list of 45 products that apply SAW devices.
(Proc.1977 IEEE Ultrasonic Symposium pp. 460-468) In the list, 10 com- SAW
mon uses at that time, such as IF filters for TVs, filters for CATV and pulse-
compressors for radars, were introduced as well as distinctive characteristics. Pitch

2 Since then, the uses of SAW devices have been expanding. For commu-
nication devices, they have come to be used in cordless phones and pagers,
and more recently they are often being used in cellular phones and other com- Signal
Working principles and Applications of SAW/FBAR Devices

munication devices. For TV broadcasting, they began to be used in tuners for

satellite broadcasting, and then widely used to meet the expanding the scope
Output
of broadcasting and changes in broadcasting infrastructures, such as digital
broadcasting for mobile equipment and satellite digital radio broadcasting, in
addition to digital terrestrial broadcasting. Furthermore, SAW filters for GPS are
now being used in car navigation systems, the telematics, and even in cellular
phones. The acoustic wave velocity depends to some extent on the types of sub-
The use of SAW filters are expanding continuously as communication func- strates or the kind of the waves utilized. The frequency of the generated waves
tions are commonly used in a larger and larger variety of applications, includ- can be changed by controlling the pitch of the IDT electrodes.
ing keyless entry systems and tire-pressure monitoring systems. Similarly, when SAWs arrive at the IDT, if the pitch of the IDT and SAWs
On the other hand, although Film Bulk Acoustic Resonators (FBAR) were match, an electrical signal is generated between the IDT electrodes.
reported in 1980, their practical use was not advanced until the release of the
PCS Duplexer by Ruby and other engineers. Varieties of Waves
Various types of waves are used in SAW devices, and each one is selected
Principles of SAW Devices for characteristics that suit the relevant application. SAW devices commonly
When a small stone is thrown into a pond, waves are generated and travel use wafers made from a quartz crystal, LiNbO3 or LiTaO3 as piezoelectric
to their surroundings. When we knock on a desk surface, we can feel the vi- materials. Even in the same material, propagation characteristics of the waves
brations traveling to their surroundings. A kind of wave exists in an elastic body vary with the cutting angle or propagation direction.
with a free surface, whose distribution is localized near the surface. Propagation characteristics of the waves include propagation velocity,
We explain it with the case of earthquakes, where waves travel along the electromechanical coupling coefficient and temperature coefficient delay time
surface of the ground after P-waves and S-waves travel through the earth. (TCD). Propagation velocity affects the relationship between the pitches of the
These are also surface acoustic waves. IDT and the required frequency of a device.
In Surface Acoustic Wave devices, a surface acoustic wave travels on the In addition, the electromechanical coupling coefficient is related to the
surface of the piezoelectric materials is used. Piezoelectric materials are used passband width when forming a filter. TCD is associated with the influence
for as electrical signals need to be transformed into the surface acoustic wave. of a temperature to the frequency change in filters when the filters are used.

10
Cutting angle and the propagation direction are chosen for the frequency char- The followings are some SAW devices that use IDTs and gratings.
acteristics required in a device.
The followings are some typical waves. SAW Resonator
Rayleigh Wave
Rayleigh waves are propagating waves on the free surface of a semi-infinite
elastic body obtained theoretically by Lord Rayleigh in 1885.
For example, this type of wave is used in substrates of 128° Y-X LiNbO3 or
X-112°Y LiTaO3, and has been often used in SAW filters and resonators for
tuners in TVs and VTRs or tuners for satellite broadcasting.

Leaky Wave
Leaky waves are propagating waves that concentrate most of the energy
close to the surface of the substrate, but have some radiation of bulk waves Load
into the substrate while propagating. This wave is used, for example, in SAW 1-port Resonance

devices with the substrates of 42°Y-X LiTaO3, 64°Y-X LiNbO3. Leaky waves
are frequently used in these kinds of substrates for their relatively large
electromechanical coupling coefficient, that enables them to form a relatively 2
wide passband required in recent years for transmitting and receiving mobile
communications. Our SAW devices for mobile communications also use them

Working principles and Applications of SAW/FBAR Devices

mainly in substrates of 42°Y-X LiTaO3.

Love Wave
When a layer of elastic body is set on the surface of a semi-infinite elastic
body, if the acoustic wave velocity of the former layer is slower than that of the Load
latter, there exists a surface wave called the Love wave, named after the dis- 2-port Resonance
coverer (Augustus Edward Hough Love). With this wave, substrates with large
electromechanical coupling coefficients or strong temperature characteristics Resonance can be generated by placing a grating at the propagation direc-
are obtained by forming a metal-oxide layer or metal layer on Y-X LiNbO3 or Y-X tion of a SAW excited by IDT.
LiTaO3. These substrates have also come to be used for mobile communication A SAW resonator is a device that applies this phenomenon.
devices. A device with one IDT is called a one-port resonator, and a device with
two IDTs for input and output terminals between gratings is called a two-port
Materials and Structures resonator. The latter can be used as a filter for its propagation characteristics
The basic components of SAW devices are IDTs, as we stated before, and between IDTs.
gratings.To reflect a surface acoustic wave with a wavelengh of λ, a large reflec-
tion rate can be obtained by aligning a number of reflection sources such as Transversal Filter
electrodes by the pitch of λ/2 or other methods as a whole.

Grating
Load

λ λ/2

11
 Transversal filters have been commonly used as IF filters for TVs or filters in tun- Zero-order
ers for satellite broadcasting. They can be designed flexibly in frequency character-
istics with some methods including varying the electrode finger overlap in the IDT.
Second-order

Ladder-type Filter
IDT IDT IDT

Load

Though ladder-type filters are basically used for unbalanced input and output,
DMS filters are commonly used to connect a balanced input amplifier because they
can be used in balanced input or output by arranging their configuration of IDTs.

Ladder-type Filter
Input
Principles and Structure of Duplexer
Duplexer is a three-port device with an antenna port, transmitter port and
receiver port, and is mainly used in cellular phones and other devices.

2 It enables simultaneous sending and receiving signals through the antenna.

SAW resonator This device is especially used in Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems, such

Input Output as UMTS and CDMA. The basic structure is shown as below.
Working principles and Applications of SAW/FBAR Devices

Principles and Structure of Duplexer

Output
Transmission part

Nowadays, SAW devices are widely used for cellular phones. Two struc- Phase shifter TX Transmit port
Filter
tures are mainly adopted for this use. One is the ladder-type filter, whose
structure is made by connecting a number of one-port resonators in a Antenna Phase shifter RX Reception port
port Filter
ladder-like formation.
Reception part

DMS Filters
Basic configuration of Duplexer

DMS Filter
An example of frequency characteristics is shown below.
An Example of Frequency Characteristics of a Duplexer

Load

Another structure is the Double Mode SAW filter, called DMS, whose
structure is made by setting a number of IDTs between gratings. It can
obtain wideband characteristics as a filter by combining various resonant
modes. As seen in the figure below, in the case of three IDTs, zero-order
and second-order modes are used. (Red: transmitter to antenna port, Blue: antenna to receiver port)

12
 A signal applied to the transmitter port passes toward the antenna port,
rather than the receiver port, by the phase shifters. On the other hand, the Upper-side electrode

receiving signal at the antenna passes only to receiver port. A single phase
Lower-side electrode Piezoelectric thin film
shifter could be used on only one side or two could be used for connecting
High impedance layer Low impedance layer
both sides for simplification.

Si
Principles of FBAR
A bulk wave propagating inside a piezoelectric thin film is generated by
putting the piezoelectric thin film between electrodes and applying a high- pedance layer and high impedance layer beneath the piezoelectric layer at the
frequency signal. The wave resonates at a particular frequency according to wavelength of λ/4. ｆo
the thickness of the thin film. A resonator with such a structure is called a Film Lower electrode h Piezoelectr

Bulk Acoustic Resonator (FBAR). FBAR and SAW

Our FBAR uses AlN as its piezoelectric material. Filter characteristics are The electrodes of substrates typically used for cellular phones such as Si A
The above part electrode
obtained by aligning FBARs in a similar configuration to ladder-type filters. That 42°Y-X LiTaO3 are designed with leaky waves with acoustic wave velocities of
is how FBAR filters are composed, and FBAR duplexers are obtained by us- around
Lower 4000 m/s.
electrode Piezoelectric thin film

ing FBAR filter as parts. The structures of FBAR are made by forming cavities For example, in a filter for a 2 GHZ,
with a dry-etching machine called a "Deep-RIE" from the reverse side of the λ×2・109=4000m/s
Si Si
2
Si substrate or by using a sacrifice layer, forming the sacrifice layer under the the wavelength needs to be around "λ= 2 um".
lower electrode, a piezoelectric thin film and upper electrode, then removing The wavelength should be equal to the length twice as the electrode pitch for
Cavity

Working principles and Applications of SAW/FBAR Devices

the layer to make a space beneath the lower electrode. excitation, and assuming that the spaces between the electrodes are the same
Another resonator structure is the Solidly Mounted Resonator (SMR) which is as the electrode width, the width of the electrode is estimated to be 0.5 μm.
In the production process of SAW, although a microfabrication process is used
and highly accurate management is conducted in line width, the process dif-
Upper-side electrode ficulty increases at a high frequency bands of around 3 GHz.
In addition, as the line width also becomes narrower, its frequency charac-
Lower-side electrode
Piezoelectric thin film
teristics deteriorate significantly due to resistance of the electrode, which also

Si Si
degrades power durability and static electricity durability.
Bulk waves of AlN used for FBAR have a fast acoustic wave velocity of 11300
m/s. In fact, the velocity is slowed by the mass effect to some extent, while the
Cavity
frequency is determined by the thickness of the piezoelectric thin film.
Like SAW, the frequency is expressed as "λ x fo = V", where "fo" represents a
resonance frequency of FBAR resonator and "V" represents an acoustic wave velocity
of piezoelectric thin film. However,λis related to film thickness "h";"λ= 2 x h".
Upper-side electrode For this reason, devices for much higher frequency than SAW devices are
ｆo=v/2h
used can be produced with FBAR. FBAR has better characteristics in power
Lower-side electrode h Piezoelectric thin film
durability and static electricity durability in the high frequency region. However,
some difficulties in the process emerge, such as difficult accuracy management
Si Air Gap
in layer thickness to control the frequency when forming a piezoelectric layer.

Packaging
Metal capped type packaging was commonly used as packages of SAW
also used in filters. This resonator utilizes bulk acoustic waves as well as FBAR. devices when SAW devices were mainly used for IF stages in TVs and other
In this structure, excited bulk acoustic waves are reflected so that they do equipment. (Figure in page 14 left below ) Now, resin sealed type packaging
not leak to the Si substrate side by alternately forming an acoustically low im- is becoming popular. Some SAW devices for telecommunication previously

13
 Metal

SAW chip
Metal lid
Wire bonding
SAW chip

Wire bonding

Ceramic
package
Resin

used metal capped type packaging when they were mainly used for cordless
SAW chip
phones. However, ceramic packaging became popular in SAW devices as they
became used more for cellular phones. In the early stages, ceramic packag-
ing was made as a chip of SAW adhered in a ceramic package and wire-bond
to it, followed by welding or soldering to the metal cap. They soon became
Wire bonding Lead frame
smaller and smaller to enable use in cellular phones, and began to use wire-

2 bonding, and then flip-chip bonding which is more suited for miniaturization.
Metal Plating
Solder Their configuration has also been reducing extra space such as exterior space
IDT Solder of the chip.
Metal
Working principles and Applications of SAW/FBAR Devices

Lid
LT LT SAW Devices in Cellular Phones
The figure below shows where SAW devices are used typically in cellular
Au Bump
phones. SAW/FBAR filters and SAW/FBAR duplexers are used as discrete parts
Ceramic Ceramic
or modules which integrate with other components. In particular, as the num-

Multi Duplexer Module PA + Duplexer

(Triplexer / Quadruplexer) Module
SAW Filter GPS
Duplexer
Band 4
ANT
Band 1&4 Band 1&4

Duplexer Band 1 GPS

Bank Module

Band 2
Main
Main Diversity
LNA Module
ANT
ANT Module

Band 5 or 8 RFIC Sub

ANT
GSM 1800
GSM1900
SAW
GSM 900
Multiplexer
Module GSM 850 50ohm
termination
GSM_LB Tx
Switch LPF
Duplexer GSM_HB Tx Filter Bank
Module LPF RXM
Module

SAW Devices in Cellular Phones

14
 Transmission belt Reception belt
Tx band Rx band
Smaller is better
0 Insertion loss

Attenuation
Attenuation

(dB) Input Output

Bigger is better

Frequency (MHz)
2
Frequency Characteristics of SAW Devices

Working principles and Applications of SAW/FBAR Devices

ber of bands supported by cellular phones are increasing, it seems that re- smartphones or to be used for communication modules in PCs including net-
quests for modules are increasing to reduce resources for designing RF blocs books and e-book readers.
in manufacturers, to tolerate the required accuracy in mounting extremely- More wireless communication equipment will proliferate in Machine to
small devices or to obtain fine characteristics in whole circuits including the Machine (M2M) applications such as smart-meters, Telematics and digital sig-
discrete parts and the substrates on which they are mounted. nage. We will prepare a line of products that are suited to the newly required
Bands with various FBAR products mainly for high frequency, SAW duplexers
Frequency Characteristics of SAW Devices and other filters. In addition, we will meet any requests for modules from cus-
The significant points of frequency characteristics of SAW devices are tomers who desire easier methods for assembly.
shown in the figure above, which is an example of an Rx filter for cellular SAW filters have been used in various types of equipment, changing their
phones. Although required signals should not deformed as little as possible, a purposes from IF filters for TVs to tuners for satellite broadcasting, resonators
faint loss is inevitable, called the "Insertion Loss." On the other hand, it is also for keyless entry systems, cellular phones and wireless communication mod-
significant that unnecessary signals are not passed through, which is called ules.
"Out-of-band rejection (Attenuation)." The values of Insertion Loss and Attenu- We hope that our SAW/FBAR devices will continue to be used as key parts
ation are indicated by the unit dB. in the new market from now on.
The figure below shows attenuation at the transmitting band which is nec-
essary to prevent mixing with a leaked signal from a transmitter on the same
cellular phone.

Future Market Potential

In the market for cellular phones, it seems that required systems (Bands)
are continuously increasing, in order to provide roaming services or to keep
pace with expanding communication systems, UMTS or Long Term Evolution
(LTE).
Other than traffic for voice communication, traffic in data communication
systems also seem to be increasing, in order to access various contents with

15