Fabrication of SAW for harsh environment USN and its characteristics

극한 환경 USN용 SAW 제작과 그 특성

In this study, AlN thin films were deposited on a polycrystalline (poly) 3C-SiC buffer layer for surface acoustic wave (SAW) applications using a pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering system. AFM, XRD and FT-IR were used to analyze structural properties and preferred orientation of the AlN/3C-SiC thin film. Suitability of the film in SAW applications was investigated by comparing the SAW characteristics of an interdigital transducer (IDT)/AlN/3C-SiC structure with the IDT/AIN/Si structure at 160 MHz in the temperature range $30-150^{\circ}C$. These experimental results showed that AlN films on the poly 3C-SiC layer were highly (002) oriented. Furthermore, the film showed improved temperature stability for the SAW device, $TCF\;=\;-18\;ppm//^{\circ}C$. The change in resonance frequency according to temperature was nearly linear. The insertion loss decrease was about $0.033dB/^{\circ}C$. However, some defects existed in the film, which caused a slight reduction in SAW velocity.