Surface Micromachined Flexural Plate Wave Device Integrable on Silicon

摘要

Small, reliable chemical sensors are needed for a wide range of applications, such as weapon state-of-health monitoring, nonproliferation activities, and manufacturing emission monitoring. Significant improvements in present surface acoustic wave sensors could be achieved by developing a flexural plate-wave (FPW) architecture, in which acoustic waves are excited in a thin sensor membrane. Further enhancement of device performance could be realized by integrating a piezoelectric thin film on top of the membrane. These new FPW-piezoelectric thin film devices would improve sensitivity, reduce size, enhance ruggedness and reduce the operating frequency so that the FPW devices would be compatible with standard digital microelectronics. Development of these piezoelectric thin film // FPW devices requires integration of (1) acoustic sensor technology, (2) silicon rnicromachining techniques to fabricate thin membranes, and (3) piezoelectric thin films. Two piezoelectric thin film technologies were emphasized in this study: Pb(Zr,Ti)O{sub 3} (PZT) and AlN. PZT thin films were of sufficient quality such that the first high frequency SAW measurements on PZT thin films were measured during the course of this study. Further, reasonable ferroelectric properties were obtained from PZT films deposited on Si surface micromachined FPW device membranes. Fundamental understanding of the effect of nanodimension interfacial layers on AlN thin film domain configurations and piezoelectric response was developed. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the US Department of Energy under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.