A Study on the Effects of Release Area on the Quality Factor of Contour-Mode Resonators by Laser Doppler Vibrometry

Through the use of a laser Doppler vibrometer, it is shown that a 31% variation in quality factor can occur due to the effect of undercutting of the device layers outside of the anchors of a 220-MHz aluminum nitride contour-mode resonator. This undercutting is a result of the isotropic etch process used to release the device from the substrate. This paper shows that the variation in Q is a function of the release distance, L , between the active region of the resonator and the edge of this released region. This paper also determined a design modification that eliminated this issue and achieved a Q of 3048, which is independent of L .