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Piezoelectric MEMS Resonators pp 99–129Cite as

Lithium Niobate for M/NEMS Resonators

Part of the Microsystems and Nanosystems book series (MICRONANO)

Abstract

Piezoelectric Radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators are chip-scale components embedded in the modern RF front ends to carry out the function of frequency selection and interference rejection. They are the building blocks of RF filters and oscillators. Their working principle leverages piezoelectric thin films to covert resonance phenomenon from the mechanical to the electrical domain. Piezoelectric MEMS resonators are still being extensively researched with the main focus placed on attaining the optimal combination of electromechanical coupling, higher Q, and wafer-level frequency agility. The intense development of piezoelectric MEMS resonators was triggered in the past decade by the demand for high-precision timing sources and high-performance filtering devices to address telecommunication needs in an already-crowded RF spectrum. Particularly, fueled by the fast growth of consumers and services in the mobile marketplace, the demand for bandwidth has resulted in increasingly stringent performance specifications for front-end filters and duplexers. In order to accommodate the emerging standards in the RF spectrum, the development of piezoelectric MEMS resonators faces many new challenges, including lower loss, wider bandwidth performance, better temperature stability, high power handling and linearity, and most important of all, frequency tunability and agility.

Keywords

  • Etch Rate
  • Surface Acoustic Wave
  • Lithium Niobate
  • Electromechanical Coupling
  • Sacrificial Layer

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

    Songbin Gong

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. MEMS Division, Engineering Director, IDT Inc., San Jose, California, USA

    Harmeet Bhugra

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Gianluca Piazza

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Gong, S. (2017). Lithium Niobate for M/NEMS Resonators. In: Bhugra, H., Piazza, G. (eds) Piezoelectric MEMS Resonators. Microsystems and Nanosystems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28688-4_4

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