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Growth of AlN Films and Its Process Development for the Fabrication of Acoustic Devices and Micromachined Structures

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Abstract

AlN films were grown on silicon substrates by RF reactive magnetron sputtering. At high sputtering powers, (002) preferred orientation as well as Al-N absorption band becomes prominent. The surface roughness and grain size of sputtered films were found to increase with RF power. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) device has been made on the grown (002) oriented piezoelectric AlN film with interdigital transducer (IDT) electrodes spacing corresponding to a wavelength of 60 μm. The centre frequency of the SAW filter was found to be 84.304 MHz, which gives a phase velocity of 5058 m/s with an electromechanical coupling coefficient (K 2) of 0.34%. Low etch rate of AlN films were observed in doped TMAH solution. Three-dimensional suspended Cr/AlN/Cr/SiO2 microstructures were also fabricated by wet chemical etching.

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Acknowledgment

The authors are thankful to Prof. D. T. Shahani for the valuable discussions and support extended by him during the course of this research study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, I. I. T. Delhi, New Delhi, 110 016, India

    J. P. Kar, G. Bose & S. Tuli

  2. Department of Physics, I. I. T. Delhi, New Delhi, 110 016, India

    A. Dangwal

  3. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, 73019, USA

    S. Mukherjee

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  1. J. P. Kar
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  2. G. Bose
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  3. S. Tuli
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  4. A. Dangwal
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  5. S. Mukherjee
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Correspondence to J. P. Kar.

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Kar, J.P., Bose, G., Tuli, S. et al. Growth of AlN Films and Its Process Development for the Fabrication of Acoustic Devices and Micromachined Structures. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 18, 1046–1051 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-008-9350-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-008-9350-1

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