MSE Seminar: “Aluminum Scandium Nitride Thin Films and Microdevices for Radio Frequency Filters and Magnetoelectric Sensors”

Aluminum Nitride (AlN) is a well-established thin film piezoelectric material. AlN bulk acoustic wave (BAW) radio frequency (RF) filters were one of the key innovations that enabled the 3G and 4G smart phone revolution. Recently, the substitutional doping of scandium (Sc) for aluminum (Al) to form aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN) has been studied to significantly enhance the piezoelectric properties and to introduce ferroelectric properties into AlN based material systems. The properties achieved have profound implications for the performance of future 5G and 6G RF filters, piezoelectric sensors, piezoelectric energy harvesters, and for scaling the bit density of ferroelectric nonvolatile memories (NMV). This talk will present on the synthesis of highly Sc alloyed AlScN materials of the thickness, stress, and crystallinity required for applications in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The material properties and device performance achieved will be reported and placed in the context of device specific figures-of-merit. Exemplar AlScN based RF and magnetoelectric sensor devices will be presented and discussed in the context of alternative technologies.