Thermal Endurance of Suspended Thin-Film Lithium Niobate up to 800 ∘ C

The need for high-temperature piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMSs) requires pushing piezoelectric platforms to their thermal limits. In harsh thermal environments, piezoelectric MEMS devices are expected to sustain severe damage because of material degradation and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatches between the functional layers and the carrier wafer. This article investigates the thermal endurance of the suspended thin-film lithium niobate (LN) platform by observing the structural integrity and performance of acoustic Lamb wave resonators after annealing rounds at increasing temperatures, with a focus on temperatures between 550 °C and 800 °C, with 50 °C temperature increments. Fundamental symmetric (S0) mode acoustic resonators are fabricated on 600-nm stoichiometric LN (sLN) with 40-nm-thick platinum top electrodes and a thin titanium adhesion layer. After each annealing round, changes in the devices' resonant frequency and quality factor (Q) are quantitatively studied. The devices and material stack are further analyzed with resistivity structures, optical microscope images, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The results provide valuable insights into the design and material selection necessary to optimize the suspended thin-film LN platform for high temperatures. Understanding the thermal limit of the platform enables its use for sensors, actuators, resonators, and potentially other thin-film LN microsystems, e.g., photonics, electro-optical, and acoustooptical systems in harsh thermal environments.