Surface acoustic wave propagation characteristics of aluminum nitride thin films grown on polycrystalline diamond

Diamond has the highest surface acoustic wave (SAW) velocity among all materials and thus provides substantial advantages for the fabrication of high-frequency SAW devices when combined with a piezoelectric thin film. The properties of layered film structures consisting of a piezoelectric material layer, aluminum nitride (AlN), and a polycrystalline diamond layer grown on a silicon substrate have been examined. Highly textured AlN thin films have been sputter-deposited onto polycrystalline diamond substrates at room temperature. X-ray diffraction analysis of the multilayer structure as well as atomic force microscope images of the AlN surface indicate that the deposited AlN films were c-axis oriented with a full width at half maximum of the rocking curve of the AlN-002-peak of 2.1degrees. The thickness of the AlN layer was of 4.3 mum, whereas the diamond layer was 50 mum thick and resting on a 3-in Si wafer. Standard one-port SAW resonators with aluminum (Al) metallization have been subsequently fabricated and evaluated. Experimental results indicate that the fundamental as well as higher Rayleigh SAW modes are excited. Thus, the phase velocities of the first, second, third, and fourth mode are found to be 6.850, 10.000, 11.800, and 14.450 m/s respectively. A very good out-of-band rejection of -50 dB was obtained. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.