Resonance Analysis of Piezoelectric Bulk Acoustic Wave Devices Based on YCOB Crystals with Monoclinic Symmetry Excited by Lateral Electric Fields

Abstract

The monoclinic YCOB crystal still maintains good piezoelectric properties at 800 °C; thus, it has a good application prospect in high-temperature piezoelectric acoustic wave sensors. However, due to the lower symmetry compared crystals in trigonal and tetragonal systems, the exciting characteristics of piezoelectric plates based on monoclinic YCOB crystals are more complicated. The vibration analysis model of lateral-field-excitation (LFE) devices based on monoclinic crystals is scarce; thus, the coupling relationships between different vibration modes and energy-trapping characteristics of the devices are unclear, which hinders the optimal design of devices. In this paper, by using Mindlin plate theory, the high-frequency vibrations of piezoelectric resonators based on monoclinic YCOB crystal plates excited by a lateral electric field are modeled and analyzed. The coupling relationships between the vibration modes of the device are clarified. The influences of the electrode width, electrode/plate mass ratio and electrode gap value on resonances and energy-trapping characteristics of the device are achieved. In addition, the effects of the structure parameters on the mass sensitivity of the monoclinic YCOB LFE devices are investigated, which are further verified by FEM simulations. The results are crucial to obtaining good resonance and sensing characteristics for LFE high-temperature piezoelectric sensors based on crystals with monoclinic symmetry.

Keywords

• bulk acoustic wave
• lateral field excitation
• monoclinic crystals
• energy trapping