Process for adapting resonance frequency of a BAW resonator

• US 8,291,559 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2009
• Issued: 10/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snaptrack Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Epcos AG (TDK Corporation)
• Inventors: Heinze, Habbo, Schmidhammer, Edgar, Schmiedgen, Monika
• Primary Examiner(s): ANGWIN, DAVID PATRICK
• Application Number:
  US12/391,801
• Publication Number:
  US 20100212127A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: 29/253.5, 298/25, 298/30, 298/46, 310/311, 310/312, 310/320, 310/324, 310/348, 310/349, 310/363, 310/366, 310/367, 333/133, 333186-192
• US Class Current: 29/25.35
• CPC Class Codes: H03H 2003/0442 of a non-piezoelectric layer
• CPC Class Codes: H03H 2003/0471 of a plurality of resonators at different frequencies
• CPC Class Codes: H03H 3/04 for obtaining desired frequency or temperature coefficient
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/42 Piezoelectric device making
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49004 including measuring or testing of device or component part
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49117 Conductor or circuit manufacturing

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a filter circuit including series and parallel coupled BAW resonators is given which compensates for frequency tolerances of the resonators which are due to the manufacturing process. The new method includes measuring a resonance frequency of at least one type of the BAW resonators produced on a wafer and defining a deviation from a desired frequency. A trimming layer is then deposited onto the entire wafer. At last, a thickness portion of the trimming layer is selectively removed, the portion being dependent on a location on the wafer and on the calculated deviation of the resonance frequency at this location.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a filter circuit comprising series and parallel coupled BAW resonators, the method comprising:

depositing functional layers of a plurality of BAW resonators onto a substrate wafer, the functional layers comprising a bottom electrode, a piezoelectric layer, and a top electrode;

structuring each of the functional layers to receive a plurality of circuits of BAW resonators, each circuit comprising series BAW resonators electrically coupled in series and parallel BAW resonators electrically coupled in parallel, wherein the coupling is done by the electrode layers;

depositing a tuning layer of a first dielectric selectively onto the parallel BAW resonators on the wafer;

measuring a resonance frequency of at least one type of the BAW resonators on the wafer;

calculating a deviation of the measured resonance frequencies from a desired value;

depositing a trimming layer onto the entire wafer; and

selectively removing a thickness portion of the trimming layer, the portion being dependent on a location on the wafer and on the calculated deviation at this location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein depositing the trimming layer onto the entire wafer comprises depositing a mask layer that covers a first type of BAW resonator and that uncovers a second type of BAW resonator.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein measuring the resonance frequency of at least one type of the BAW resonators comprises measuring the resonance frequencies of both series BAW resonators and parallel BAW resonators.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein measuring the resonance frequency of at least one type of the BAW resonators comprises measuring a respective resonance frequency of BAW resonators manufactured on a plurality of wafers that are processed at the same time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein measuring the resonance frequency of at least one type of the BAW resonators comprises measuring selected filter circuits that are distributed over the wafer;

and

calculating the deviation of the measured resonance frequencies from a desired value comprises performing an interpolation step to determine a distribution of the deviation over the entire wafer and all filter circuits.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein depositing the trimming layer comprises depositing a layer of an oxide or a nitride.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein,

a desired thickness of BAW resonators depends on a desired resonance frequency of the BAW resonators;

the functional layers are deposited in a total thickness less than the desired thickness,

removing a thickness portion of the trimming layer is performed to an extent that another thickness portion of the trimming layer remains on top of the BAW resonators, the other thickness portion functioning as a passivation layer of the filter circuit.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the trimming layer is deposited in a thickness d0 where d0≧

2dR and dR is a calculated remaining thickness portion of the trimming layer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a desired thickness of the BAW resonators is calculated to be a sum of a total thickness of the functional layers plus at least 20 nm of the remaining trimming layer.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the trimming layer is deposited in a thickness of at least 90 nm, and after removing the thickness portion of the trimming layer, a remaining thickness of the trimming layer of at least 10 nm remains.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein selectively removing a thickness portion of the trimming layer comprises removing the thickness portion of the trimming layer by a laser ablation process.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the laser ablation process comprises scanning a laser over the trimming layer, thereby ablating the thickness portion according to energy impacted into the trimming layer by the laser and according to the amount of thickness that has to be removed.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein selectively removing a thickness portion of the trimming layer comprises removing the thickness portion of the trimming layer by an ion beam accelerated toward the substrate.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the thickness portion of the trimming layer is removed by a reactive ion etch.