FEM modeling of solidly mounted film bulk acoustic resonator and gas sensor using PIB-sensitive layer

Abstract. The application of a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) as a gas sensor is presented here. Zinc Oxide is used as a piezoelectric (PZE) material for the resonator and a Bragg reflector is made of Molybdenum and Silicon dioxide in proposed Solidly Mounted FBAR. The structure offers a high quality factor of 1209 at the resonance and shows a coupling coefficient of 7.51% for the 0.7-μm-thick PZE layer. To make it capable of working as a gas sensor, an additional sensitive layer for adsorption is used. A 0.51-μm-thin film of polymer-sensitive layer (polyisobutylene, PIB) is used on the top electrode. The adsorption of CH2Cl2 (dichloromethane, DCM) prompts the change in density of the PIB layer, which causes the change in resonance frequency of the FBAR. The simulation results have shown the sensitivity of 450  Hz/ppm for gas sensing for the above-mentioned structure. The sensitivity of the sensor depends on the characteristic frequencies of the device, which are further the function of the thickness of the resonating structure. No involvement of a harsh etching process in fabrication, in addition to immense sensitivity and quality factor, makes this sensor relevant for DCM sensing.

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