Fabrication of a surface acoustic wave-based correlator using step-and-flash imprint lithography

摘要

We report the surface acoustic wave (SAW) correlator devices fabricated using nanoimprint lithography. Using step-and-flash imprint lithography (S-FIL),.we produced SAW correlator devices on 100 mm diameter z-cut LiNbO_3 devices and an aluminum metal etch process. On the same chip layout, we fabricated SAW filters and compared both the filters and correlators to similar devices fabricated using electron-beam lithography (EBL). Both S-FTL- and EBL-patterned correlators and SAW filters were analyzed using a bit-error rate tester to generate the signal and a parametric signal analyzer to evaluate the output. The NIL filters had an average center frequency of 2.38 GHz with a standard deviation of 10 MHz. The measured insertion loss averaged -31 dB. In comparison, SAW filters fabricated using EBL exhibited a center frequency of 2.39 GHz and a standard deviation of 100 kHz. Based on our preliminary results, we believe that S-FIL is an efficient and entirely viable fabrication method to produce quality SAW filters and correlators.