Film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) have been evaluated for use as biosensors because of their high sensitivity and small size. This study fabricated a novel human IgE biosensor using shear-mode FBAR devices with c-axis 23°-tilted AlN thin films. Off-axis radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method was used for deposition of c-axis 23°-tilted AlN thin films. The deposition parameters were adopted as working pressure of 5 mTorr, substrate temperature of 300°C, sputtering power of 250 W, and 50 mm distance between off-axis and on-axis. The characteristics of the AlN thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The frequency response was measured with an HP8720 network analyzer with a CASCADE probe station. The X-ray diffraction revealed (002) preferred wurtzite structure, and the cross-sectional image showed columnar structure with 23°-tilted AlN thin films. In the biosensor, an Au/Cr layer in the FBAR backside cavity was used as the detection layer and the Au surface was modified using self-assembly monolayers (SAMs) method. Then, the antigen and antibody were coated on biosensor through their high specificity property. Finally, the shear-mode FBAR device with kt2 of 3.18% was obtained, and the average sensitivity for human IgE detection of about 1.425 × 105 cm2/g was achieved.

In this study, the carbon electrode supercapacitors were fabricated using various specific surface areas of active carbon and contents of carbon black. The carbon black was added to increase conductivity of the carbon electrode. To find the optimal processing parameters of the carbon electrode, the effects of various specific surface areas of activated carbon and amounts of carbon black on the capacitive properties of the supercapacitor are investigated. The experimental results showed that the optimum carbon electrode can be obtained using mesocarbon microbeads with a high-specific surface area (2685 m 2 /g), a larger pore volume (0.6 cm 3 /g), and by adding 10 wt.% carbon black. The specific capacitance of the carbon electrode in 1 M KOH is 171.2 F/g.

High-frequency Rayleigh-mode surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices were fabricated for 4G mobile telecommunications. The RF magnetron sputtering method was adopted to grow piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films on the Si3N4/Si substrates. The influence of sputtering parameters on the crystalline characteristics of AlN thin films was investigated. The interdigital transducer electrodes (IDTs) of aluminum (Al) were then fabricated onto the AlN surfaces by using the electron beam (e-beam) direct write lithography method to form the Al/AlN/Si3N4/Si structured SAW devices. The Al electrodes were adopted owing to its low resistivity, low cost, and low density of the material. For 4G applications in mobile telecommunications, the line widths of 937 nm, 750 nm, 562 nm, and 375 nm of IDTs were designed. Preferred orientation and crystalline properties of AlN thin films were determined by X-ray diffraction using a Siemens XRD-8 with CuKαradiation. Additionally, the cross-sectional images of AlN thin films were obtained by scanning electron microscope. Finally, the frequency responses of high-frequency SAW devices were measured using the E5071C network analyzer. The center frequencies of the high-frequency Rayleigh-mode SAW devices of 1.36 GHz, 1.81 GHz, 2.37 GHz, and 3.74 GHz are obtained. This study demonstrates that the proposed processing method significantly contributes to high-frequency SAW devices for wireless communications.

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In this study, piezoelectric zinc oxide (ZnO) thin film was deposited on the Pt/Ti/SiNx/Si substrate to construct the FBAR device. The Pt/Ti multilayers were deposited on SiNx/Si as the bottom electrode and the Al thin film was deposited on the ZnO piezoelectric layer as the top electrode by a DC sputtering system. The ZnO thin film was deposited onto the Pt thin film by a radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering system. The cavity on back side for acoustic reflection of the FBAR device was achieved by KOH solution and reactive ion etching (RIE) processes. The crystalline structures and surface morphologies of the films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). The optimized as-deposited ZnO thin films with preferred (002)-orientation were obtained under the sputtering power of 80 W and sputtering pressure of 20 mTorr. The crystalline characteristics of ZnO thin films and the frequency responses of the FBAR devices can be improved by using the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process. The optimized annealing temperature and annealing time are 400 °C and 10 min, respectively. Finally, the FBAR devices with structure of Al/ZnO/Pt/Ti/SiNx/Si were fabricated. The frequency responses showed that the return loss of the FBAR device with RTA annealing was improved from −24.07 to −34.66 dB, and the electromechanical coupling coefficient (kt2) was improved from 1.73% to 3.02% with the resonance frequency of around 3.4 GHz.