The influence of fabrication errors on the stopband magnitude responses of SAW devices

This article is devoted to an analysis of the influence of manufacturing errors on the magnitude responses of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. Analytical analysis of these random errors provides statistical distributions of the relevant responses and their parameters. It allows significant reduction in the modeling computations compared to the Monte Carlo method, and it provides possibilities for further analytical analysis. After the application of the statistical analysis to different potential structures of SAW devices, it is possible to choose the least sensitive one during the design process without the need of costly trials. Experimental analysis confirmed the existence of some of the features predicted both theoretically and by modeling. The experimental procedure for the evaluation of the fabrication error variances is described. The application of these results to the design process of the SAW devices allows simplification of the requirements for the manufacturing equipment and/or improvement of the devices' parameters, especially stopband suppression.