Two-step sputtered ZnO piezoelectric films for film bulk acoustic resonators

This study investigates high-performance ZnO piezoelectric films used for thin film bulk acoustic resonators (TFBAR). The ZnO piezoelectric film was deposited on a Pt/Ti electrode using an RF magnetron sputter by a two-step method at room temperature. The Pt/Ti electrode was deposited by a DC sputtering system, on which, ZnO piezoelectric films were deposited in one step and in two steps to minimize roughness in the first step and produce the preferred orientation in the second. Both field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and atom force microscopy (AFM) revealed that ZnO piezoelectric film deposited by two-step sputtering exhibited favorable characteristics, such as a rigidly precise surface structure with surface roughness of 7.37 nm, even better than in one-step sputtering. Examining the ZnO thin film by X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed a much higher c-axis-preferring orientation than in one-step sputtering. The reflection coefficient of the resonator device was measured using an HP8720 network analyzer. The frequency response of the FBAR device exhibited a return loss of -25 dB at a resonant frequency of 2212 MHz with a high coupling coefficient of 6.7%.