High Quality Silicon-Based AlN Thin Films for MEMS Application

ABSTRACT

Aluminum nitride is an attractive piezoelectric material for MEMS devices such as bulk acoustic wave (BAW) devices. (002)-oriented AlN films were deposited on Si, Al and Pt by reactive sputtering. Optimized AlN (002) peak reaches a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 5.6°. Auger electron spectroscopy is used to analyze the oxygen contamination of films. To find the suitable electrode material for device application, the growth mechanism of AlN crystallites on different substrates is also discussed. Based on sputtered AlN films, the prototype of AlN thin film bulk acoustic resonator (TFBAR) was fabricated successfully.

Keywords:

• Aluminum nitride
• reactive sputtering
• (002) orientation
• thin film bulk acoustic resonator (TFBAR)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work is supported by the National 973' Project (G1999033105) and “985” project of China.