AlN piezoelectric films for sensing and actuation

Aluminum Nitride (AlN) is explored as a thin film material for piezoelectric MEMS applications. A pulse DC reactive sputtering technique is used to deposit the AlN thin films and process parameters are optimized to obtain good crystallinity and high c-axis orientation films. A CMOS compatible process is developed and employed to fabricate surface acoustic wave devices based on AlN/Si structure targeting operation in liquid environment and shearmode resonators for mass sensing applications. We also investigate sputtered Ti thin films as electrodes for thin and flexible AlN piezoelectric devices.MicroelectronicsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc