An official website of the United States government
F-band substrate-integrated waveguides (SIWs) are designed, fabricated, and characterized on a SiC wafer, along with SIW-based filters, impedance standards, and transitions to grounded coplanar waveguides (GCPWs). The GCPW-SIW transitions not only facilitate wafer probing, but also double as resonators to form a 3-pole band-pass filter together with an SIW resonator. The resulted filter exhibits a 1.5-dB insertion loss at 115 GHz with a 34-dB return loss and a 19-GHz (16%) 3-dB bandwidth. The size of the filter is only 63% of previous filters comprising three SIW resonators. These results show the feasibility for monolithic integration of highquality filters with high-efficiency antennas and amplifiers in a single-chip RF frontend above 110 GHz, which is particularly advantageous for 6G wireless communications and nextgeneration automobile radars.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on June 1, 2026
Frequency and Bandwidth Design Toward Millimeter-Wave Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Acoustic Filters
This letter presents a versatile design method for achieving precise frequency and bandwidth control of compact acoustic filters monolithically at millimeter wave (mmWave) in transferred thin-film lithium niobate (LiNbO3). Prototypes are implemented with lateral field excited first-order antisymmetric (A1) mode bulk acoustic resonators (XBARs). The design leverages the in-plane anisotropy of the e15 piezoelectric coefficient in 128° Y-cut LiNbO3, enabling monolithic control of electromechanical coupling ( k2 ) by simply rotating the resonator layout. This allows for filters with customizable fractional bandwidths (FBWs). Additionally, fine-tuning of the center frequency ( fc ) is achieved through selective trimming of the film for series and shunt resonators, enabling a single design to be scaled across frequencies with enhanced fabrication tolerance. To validate the approach, we designed and fabricated a filter centered at 18.6GHz, achieving a low insertion loss (IL) of 1.84 dB, and a precise designed FBW of 9.5%. This platform shows a significant promise for enabling a monolithic filter bank with precise band selection, paving the way for the next generation of mmWave acoustic filters.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2339731
- PAR ID:
- 10632399
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE Microwave and Wireless Technology Letters
- Volume:
- 35
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 2771-957X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 796 to 799
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
This paper reports on an RF design methodology for acoustic-wave-resonator-(AWR)-based bandpass filters (BPFs) with input-reflectionless behavior in both their passband and stopband regions. The proposed concept is based on acoustic-wave-lumped-element resonators (AWLRs) that are incorporated in series-cascaded reflectionless stages (RLSs). Each RLS comprises a first-order bandpass section-shaped by three impedance inverters and one AWLR-and a first-order resistively-terminated bandstop section-shaped by two impedance inverters and one AWLR-that are designed to exhibit complementary transfer functions. In this manner, an input-reflectionless behavior can be obtained both at the passband and stopband regions of the filter. In addition, the use of AWLRs in the RLSs facilitates the realization of high-quality-factor quasi-elliptic-type transfer functions with fractional bandwidths (FBWs) that are wider than the electromechanical coupling coefficient (kt 2 ) of its constituent AWRs. For proof-of-concept validation purposes, one- and two-state prototypes were manufactured, and measured at 418 MHz using commercially-available surface-acoustic-wave resonators.more » « less
-
Microfluidically reconfigurable radio-frequency (RF) devices in general have been found attractive for low-loss, wide-frequency tunability and high-power-handling capabilities. Recently, integrated actuation of the microfluidically reconfigurable devices has been proposed for compact mm-wave device applications. This article for the first time introduces microfluidically reconfigurable frequency- and/or bandwidthtunable bandpass filters (BPFs) operated at the mm-wave band with integrated actuation. The BPFs consist of coupled hairpin resonators. Frequency tuning is achieved by capacitively loading the resonators. Bandwidth tuning is achieved by creating varying capacitive loading among the resonators to control the interresonator couplings. The capacitive loading mechanisms are realized using the selectively metallized plates (SMPs) that can be repositioned within the microfluidic channels. The microfluidic channels are located directly above the stationary metallizations of the filter. Piezoelectric bending actuators placed under the filter’s ground plane provide the SMP motion capability. The BPFs perform with the worst-case insertion loss of 3.1 dB. Frequency-tuning capable filters operate within 28–38-GHz band. Fractional bandwidth tunability varies from 7.8% to 16.7% at 38 GHz and 7.6% to 12.5% at 28 GHz for the filter that is capable of both tuning mechanisms. The filters are characterized to handle 5 W of the continuous RF power without needing thick ground planes or heat sinks. In addition, the frequency-tuning speed is characterized to be 285 MHz/ms.more » « less
-
Nonlinear micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) resonators open new opportunities in sensing and signal manipulation compared to their linear counterparts by enabling frequency tuning and increased bandwidth. Here, we design, fabricate and study drumhead resonators exhibiting strongly nonlinear dynamics and develop a reduced order model (ROM) to capture their response accurately. The resonators undergo electrostatically-mediated thermoelastic buckling, which tunes their natural frequency from 4.7 to 11.3 MHz, a factor of 2.4× tunability. Moreover, the imposed buckling switches the nonlinearity of the resonators between purely stiffening, purely softening, and even softening-to-stiffening. Accessing these exotic dynamics requires precise control of the temperature and the DC electrostatic forces near the resonator’s critical-buckling point. To explain the observed tunability, we develop a one-dimensional physics-based ROM that predicts the linear and nonlinear response of the fundamental bending mode of these drumhead resonators. The ROM captures the dynamic effects of the internal stresses resulting from three sources: The residual stresses from the fabrication process, the mismatch in thermal expansion between the constituent layers, and lastly, the applied electrostatic forces. The novel ROM developed in this article not only replicates the observed tunability of linear (within 5.5 % error) and nonlinear responses even near the states of critical buckling but also provides insightful intuition on the interplay among the softening and stiffening, which is invaluable for the precise design of similar devices. This remarkable nonlinear and large tunability of the natural frequency are valuable features for on-chip acoustic devices in broad applications such as signal manipulation, filtering, and MEMS waveguides.more » « less
-
Thin film bulk acoustic wave resonators (FBARs) leveraging sputtered aluminum nitride (AlN) and scandium aluminum nitride (ScAlN) films, are a leading commercial solution for compact radio frequency (RF) filters in mobile devices. However, as 5G/6G bands extend beyond 6 GHz, achieving the required thinner piezoelectric film thicknesses below 500 nm presents a significant challenge to high-quality sputtering, resulting in a moderate quality factor (Q). Additionally, AlN/ScAlN platforms are limited by moderate electromechanical coupling (k2), restricting bandwidth. More recently, ultra-thin transferred single-crystal piezoelectric lithium niobate (LN) has enabled lateral field excited resonators (XBAR) at 10-30 GHz. While these devices boast a high Q and k2, they face challenges with low capacitance density, large footprint, and significant electromagnetic (EM) effects. On the other hand, thickness-field excited LN FBARs face challenges with bottom electrode integration. In this work, we implement a transferred LN on aluminum FBAR platform on sapphire wafers with an intermediate amorphous silicon layer without the need for a patterned bottom electrode. The resonators show first order symmetric mode (S1) at 10.5 GHz with a 3-dB series resonance Q of 38 and k2 of 14.1%, alongside third order symmetric mode (S3) at 27 GHz with a 3-dB series resonance Q of 22 and a high k2 of 11.3%. Further analysis shows that higher Q could be achieved by adjusting the low-loss piezoelectric to lossy metal volume ratio.more » « less
