Novel Electrode Configurations in Dual-Layer Stacked and Switchable AlN Contour-Mode Resonators for Low Impedance Filter Termination and Reduced Insertion Loss

Chengjie Zuo, University of Pennsylvania
Nipun Sinha, University of Pennsylvania
Gianluca Piazza, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

This paper reports, for the first time, on the design and demonstration of two novel electrode configurations in dual-layer stacked Aluminum Nitride (AlN) piezoelectric contour-mode resonators to obtain low filter termination resistance (down to 300 Ω, which also results in better filter out-of-band rejection) and reduced insertion loss (IL as low as 1.6 dB) in multi-frequency (100 MHz – 1 GHz) AlN MEMS filters. The microfabrication process is fully compatible with the previously demonstrated AlN RF MEMS switches, which makes it possible to design and integrate multi-frequency switchable filter banks on a single chip.