Guided wave devices with selectively loaded piezoelectric layers
AssigneeQorvo US, Inc.
InventorKushal Bhattacharjee
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Abstract
A micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) guided wave device includes a plurality of electrodes arranged below a piezoelectric layer (e.g., either embedded in a slow wave propagation layer or supported by a suspended portion of the piezoelectric layer) and configured for transduction of a lateral acoustic wave in the piezoelectric layer. The piezoelectric layer permits one or more additions or modifications to be made thereto, such as trimming (thinning) of selective areas, addition of loading materials, sandwiching of piezoelectric layer regions between electrodes to yield capacitive elements or non-linear elastic convolvers, addition of sensing materials, and addition of functional layers providing mixed domain signal processing utility.
Claims22
A micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) guided wave device comprising:
- a piezoelectric layer;
- a slow wave propagation layer disposed below the piezoelectric layer;
- a plurality of electrodes configured for transduction of a lateral acoustic wave in the piezoelectric layer;
- a guided wave confinement structure arranged proximate to the slow wave propagation layer and configured to confine the lateral acoustic wave in the piezoelectric layer and the slow wave propagation layer;
- and
- at least one loading material configured to locally alter a property of the lateral acoustic wave in the piezoelectric layer;
- wherein one of (i) the plurality of electrodes or (ii) the at least one loading material is arranged in the slow wave propagation layer, and the other one of (i) the plurality of electrodes or (ii) the at least one loading material is arranged over the piezoelectric layer;
- and
- wherein the at least one loading material is devoid of contact with any electrode of the plurality of electrodes.
A method of fabricating a MEMS guided wave device, the method comprising:
- arranging one of (i) a plurality of electrodes or (ii) at least one loading material in a slow wave propagation layer;
- arranging the other one of (i) the plurality of electrodes or (ii) the at least one loading material over a piezoelectric layer;
- and
- providing a guided wave confinement structure proximate to the slow wave propagation layer;
- wherein the plurality of electrodes is configured for transduction of a lateral acoustic wave in the piezoelectric layer and the slow wave propagation layer;
- wherein the guided wave confinement structure is configured to confine the lateral acoustic wave in the piezoelectric layer;
- and
- wherein the at least one loading material is configured to locally alter a property of the lateral acoustic wave transduced in the piezoelectric layer, and the at least one loading material is devoid of contact with any electrode of the plurality of electrodes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.