38.7 GHz Thin Film Lithium Niobate Acoustic Filter

In this work, a 38.7 GHz acoustic wave ladder filter exhibiting insertion loss (IL) of 5.63 dB and 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 17.6% is demonstrated, pushing the frequency limits of thin-film piezoelectric acoustic filter technology. The filter achieves operating frequency up to 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency range 2 (FR2) bands, by thinning thin-film LiNbO3 resonators to sub-50 nm thickness. The high electromechanical coupling (k(2)) and quality factor (Q) of first-order antisymmetric (A1) mode resonators in 128 degrees Y-cut lithium niobate (LiNbO3) collectively enable the first acoustic filters at mmWave. The key design consideration of electromagnetic (EM) resonances in interdigitated transducers (IDT) is addressed and mitigated. These results indicate that thin-film piezoelectric resonators could be pushed to 5G FR2 bands. Further performance enhancement and frequency scaling calls for better resonator technologies and EM-acoustic filter co-design.