Akoustis, Inc.

Abhay Saranswarup Kochhar

Mary Winters

Dae Ho Kim

Jeffrey Blanton Shealy

Craig Moe

Frank Zhiquang Bi

Ramakrishna Vetury

Rohan W Houlden

Emad Mehdizadeh

A method of forming a piezoelectric thin film includes sputtering a first surface of a substrate to provide a piezoelectric thin film comprising AlN, AlScN, AlCrN, HfMgAlN, or ZrMgAlN thereon, processing a second surface of the substrate that is opposite the first surface of the substrate to provide an exposed surface of the piezoelectric thin film from beneath the second surface of the substrate, wherein the exposed surface of the piezoelectric thin film includes a first crystalline quality portion, removing a portion of the exposed surface of the piezoelectric thin film to access a second crystalline quality portion that is covered by the first crystalline quality portion, wherein the second crystalline quality portion has a higher quality than the first crystalline quality portion and processing the second crystalline quality portion to provide an acoustic resonator device on the second crystalline quality portion.

Methods of forming group III piezoelectric thin films via removal of portions of first sputtered material

A method and structure for a transfer process for an acoustic resonator device. In an example, a bulk acoustic wave resonator (BAWR) with an air reflection cavity is formed. A piezoelectric thin film is grown on a crystalline substrate. Patterned electrodes are deposited on the surface of the piezoelectric film. An etched sacrificial layer is deposited over the electrodes and a planarized support layer is deposited over the sacrificial layer. The device can include a dielectric protection layer (DPL) that protects the piezoelectric layer from etching processes that can produce rough surfaces and reduces parasitic capacitance around the perimeter of the resonator when the DPL's dielectric constant is lower than that of the piezoelectric layer. The DPL can be configured between the top electrode and the piezoelectric layer, between the bottom electrode and the piezoelectric layer, or both.

Piezoelectric acoustic resonator with dielectric protective layer manufactured with piezoelectric thin film transfer process

A method and structure for a transfer process for an acoustic resonator device. In an example, a bulk acoustic wave resonator (BAWR) with an air reflection cavity is formed. A piezoelectric thin film is grown on a crystalline substrate. Patterned electrodes are deposited on the surface of the piezoelectric film. An etched sacrificial layer is deposited over the electrodes and a planarized support layer is deposited over the sacrificial layer. The device can include temperature compensation layers (TCL) that improve the device TCF. These layers can be thin layers of oxide type materials and can be configured between the top electrode and the piezoelectric layer, between the bottom electrode and the piezoelectric layer, between two or more piezoelectric layers, and any combination thereof. In an example, the TCLs can be configured from thick passivation layers overlying the top electrode and/or underlying the bottom electrode.

Piezoelectric acoustic resonator with improved TCF manufactured with piezoelectric thin film transfer process

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Charlotte, NC, United States of America

Abhay Saranswarup Kochhar