Integrated Aluminum Nitride Piezoelectric Microelectromechanical System for Radio Front Ends

This article summarizes the most recent technological developments in the realization of integrated aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric microelectromechanical system (MEMS) for radio frequency (rf) front ends to be employed in next generation wireless communication devices. The AlN-based resonator and switch technologies are presented, their principle of operation explained, and some key experimental achievements showing device operations between 20 MHz and 10 GHz are introduced. Fundamental material, device, and fabrication aspects that needed to be taken into account for the demonstration of the first integrated rf MEMS solution based on the combination of AlN MEMS resonators and switches are highlighted. Given the ability to operate over a broad range of frequencies on a single silicon chip, the AlN MEMS technology is extremely attractive for the demonstration of reconfigurable and multiband rf transceivers. Next generation rf architectures that take advantage of large scale integration of AlN MEMS resonators and switches are briefly presented. Disciplines Electrical and Computer Engineering | Engineering Comments Suggested Citation: Piazza, G. (2009). "Integrated aluminum nitride piezoelectric microelectromechanical system for radio front ends." Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A. vol. 27(4). pp. 776 784. © 2009 American Vacuum Society. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Vacuum Society. The following article appeared in Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.3077276. This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/ese_papers/580 Integrated aluminum nitride piezoelectric microelectromechanical system for radio front ends Gianluca Piazza Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania 19104 Received 2 October 2008; accepted 5 January 2009; published 29 June 2009 This article summarizes the most recent technological developments in the realization of integrated aluminum nitride AlN piezoelectric microelectromechanical system MEMS for radio frequency rf front ends to be employed in next generation wireless communication devices. The AlN-based resonator and switch technologies are presented, their principle of operation explained, and some key experimental achievements showing device operations between 20 MHz and 10 GHz are introduced. Fundamental material, device, and fabrication aspects that needed to be taken into account for the demonstration of the first integrated rf MEMS solution based on the combination of AlN MEMS resonators and switches are highlighted. Given the ability to operate over a broad range of frequencies on a single silicon chip, the AlN MEMS technology is extremely attractive for the demonstration of reconfigurable and multiband rf transceivers. Next generation rf architectures that take advantage of large scale integration of AlN MEMS resonators and switches are briefly presented. © 2009 American Vacuum Society. DOI: 10.1116/1.3077276