arXiv subjects

Ruochen Lu

Publications and source records attributed to Ruochen Lu.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2026

19.3 GHz Acoustic Filter with High Close-in Rejection in Tri-layer Thin-Film Lithium Niobate

Acoustic filters are preferred front-end solutions at sub-6 GHz due to their superior frequency selectivity compared to electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. With the ongoing development of 5G and the evolution toward 6G, there is a growing need to extend acoustic filter technologies into frequency range 3 (FR3), which spans 7 to 24 GHz to accommodate emerging high-frequency bands. However, scaling acoustic filters beyond 10 GHz presents significant challenges, as conventional platforms suffer from increased insertion loss (IL) and degraded out-of-band (OoB) rejection at higher frequencies. Recent innovations have led to the emergence of periodically poled piezoelectric lithium niobate (P3F LN) laterally excited bulk acoustic resonators (XBARs), offering low-loss and high electromechanical coupling performance above 10 GHz. This work presents the first tri-layer P3F LN filter operating at 19.3 GHz, achieving a low IL of 2.2 dB, a 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 8.5%, and an impressive 49 dB close in rejection. These results demonstrate strong potential for integration into FR3 diplexers.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2026

62.6 GHz ScAlN Solidly Mounted Acoustic Resonators

We demonstrate a record-high 62.6 GHz solidly mounted acoustic resonator (SMR) incorporating a 67.6 nm scandium aluminum nitride (Sc0.3Al0.7N) piezoelectric layer on a 40 nm buried platinum (Pt) bottom electrode, positioned above an acoustic Bragg reflector composed of alternating SiO2 (28.2 nm) and Ta2O5 (24.3 nm) layers in 8.5 pairs. The Bragg reflector and piezoelectric stack above are designed to confine a third-order thickness-extensional (TE) bulk acoustic wave (BAW) mode, while efficiently transducing with thickness-field excitation. The fabricated SMR exhibits an extracted piezoelectric coupling coefficient (k2) of 0.8% and a maximum Bode quality factor (Q) of 51 at 63 GHz, representing the highest operating frequency reported for an SMR to date. These results establish a pathway toward mmWave SMR devices for filters and resonators in next-generation RF front ends.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2026

Uncooled low-noise thin-film optomechanical resonator for thermal sensing on lithium niobate

Optomechanical transduction harnesses the interaction between optical fields and mechanical motion to achieve sensitive measurement of weak mechanical quantities with inherently low noise. Lithium niobate combines low optical loss, strong piezoelectricity, high intrinsic fQ_m factor, and low thermal conductivity, making it promising for exploring optomechanical platforms targeting thermal sensing applications. Here, we developed an integrated optomechanical platform on thin-film lithium niobate with precisely engineered optical, mechanical, and thermal fields within a compact 40 μm by 40 μm footprint. The platform integrates suspended microring resonators with ultrathin central membranes, reducing mechanical stiffness and effective mass while maintaining a high optical factor Q_o of 1e6 and mechanical quality factor Q_m of 1117, which increases to 5.1e4 after oscillation. The design suppresses thermal dissipation into the silicon substrate and enhances thermal sensitivity, achieving a temperature coefficient of frequency of -124 ppm/K and a noise-equivalent power of 6.2 nW/sqrt(Hz) at 10 kHz at room temperature. This compact and scalable platform opens up new opportunities for high-sensitivity thermal sensing, supports heterogeneous integration with infrared absorbers for uncooled infrared detection, and enables fully integrated, all-optical on-chip readout, paving the way toward large-format, low-noise infrared sensing arrays.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

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

The need for high-temperature piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) 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 paper 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 $^\circ$C and 800 $^\circ$C, with 50 $^\circ$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 (\emph{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 acousto-optical systems in harsh thermal environments.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Radial Mode Lithium Niobate Rosen Transformer

In this work, we demonstrate the first two-port radial-mode Rosen transformer based on 36$^{\circ}$Y-cut lithium niobate (LN) for piezoelectric power conversion. The device achieves a high transformation ratio (TF) of 16, a high electromechanical coupling factor ($k^2$) of 16.8\% and a quality factor ($Q$) of 2500, yielding an outstanding figure of merit (FoM = $Q \cdot k^2$) of 420. The fabricated transformer features a large effective turns ratio of 16 and delivers an open-circuit voltage gain of 45.56 (unloaded) and 40.57 with a load of 1 M$Ω$ in parallel with 0.1 pF, validating its ability to provide efficient passive voltage amplification. An equivalent circuit model was developed to accurately fit both finite-element-simulated and measured admittance spectra, enabling reliable parameter extraction. These results establish LN radial-mode resonators as a promising high-performance, magnetic-less transformer platform.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Residual Stress Anisotropy In Thin-Film Lithium Niobate For Stress-Managed MEMS

In this work, we present the first experimental study of residual stress and post-release beam deflection in 128-degree Y-cut thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) on Si, revealing pronounced stress anisotropy with in-plane orientation. Using optical profilometry with curvature fitting, we extract the stress gradient (sigma1) and generate orientation-resolved stress maps across multiple film thicknesses (100 nm, 220 nm, and 460 nm). For films in the 220 to 460 nm range, we identify stress-free in-plane orientations near approximately 55 degrees and 125 degrees, enabling extremely flat suspended beams. In contrast, ultra-thin 100 nm films exhibit shifted stress-free orientations near approximately 20 degrees and 160 degrees. Leveraging these orientations, we demonstrate very long suspended beams up to 2 cm in length, 10 micrometers in width, and 460 nm in thickness without collapse. These results establish in-plane stress anisotropy and thickness selection in TFLN as practical design levers for mechanically stable, scalable, and stress-managed microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

An 11.7-GHz ScAlN FBAR Filter: Case Study on Scaling Limits and Challenges

This paper reports an 11.7 GHz compact 50 ohm ladder filter based on single layer Scandium Aluminum Nitride (ScAlN) film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) with platinum (Pt) electrodes, and uses it as a quantitative case study of the limits encountered when directly scaling to higher frequencies. The measured filter achieves a 3 dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 4.0% and an out of band rejection greater than 23.1 dB, with a minimum insertion loss (IL) of 6.8 dB. We analyze the origin of this performance through a quantitative framework: (1) a loss decomposition study, (2) frequency shift sensitivity that explains the discrepancy between simulated and measured center frequency, (3) FBW sensitivity to series shunt separation and port impedance, and (4) stress limited aperture that constrains device size. The results establish a realistic, fabricable baseline for directly scaled single layer ScAlN FBAR filters and outline materials, electrode, and stress management directions toward lower loss mmWave acoustic filters.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Practical Demonstrations of FR3-Band Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Acoustic Filter Design

This article presents an approach to control the operating frequency and fractional bandwidth (FBW) of miniature acoustic filters in thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN). More specifically, we used first-order antisymmetric (A1) mode lateral-field-excited bulk acoustic wave resonators (XBARs) to achieve efficient operation at 20.5 GHz. Our technique leverages the thickness-dependent resonant frequency of A1 XBARs, combined with the in-plane anisotropic properties of 128$^\circ$ Y-cut TFLN, to customize filter characteristics. The implemented three-element ladder filter prototype achieves an insertion loss (IL) of only 1.79 dB and a controlled 3-dB FBW of 8.58% at 20.5 GHz, with an out-of-band (OoB) rejection greater than 14.9 dB across the entire FR3 band, while featuring a compact footprint of 0.90 $\times$ 0.74 mm2. Moreover, an eight-element filter prototype shows an IL of 3.80 dB, an FBW of 6.12% at 22.0 GHz, and a high OoB rejection of 22.97 dB, demonstrating the potential for expanding to higher-order filters. As frequency allocation requirements become more stringent in future FR3 bands, our technique showcases promising capability in enabling compact and monolithic filter banks toward next-generation acoustic filters for 6G and beyond.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2025

Bimorph Lithium Niobate Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer

This work demonstrates a prototype bi-layer piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) based on transferred periodically poled piezoelectric film (P3F) X-cut lithium niobate (LN). Opposite in-plane polarizations in the piezoelectric film stack are employed to enable efficient lateral field excitation of the flexural mode. Thanks to its high piezoelectric coefficient and low dielectric loss, the X-cut LN exhibits high figure of merits (FoMs) as both sensors and transducers. The fabricated PMUT demonstrates an out-of-plane mode near 1 MHz with an electromechanical coupling of 3.6\%. Laser Doppler vibrometry further validates the finite element analysis, showing a peak center displacement of 340 pm/V. These results establish bi-layer P3F LN PMUTs as a promising platform for compact and high-performance ultrasonic transducers. Future work will focus on theoretical analysis, modeling of the measured data, improving the design of the transducer topology, and mitigating feedthrough effects.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

High-Q Millimeter-Wave Acoustic Resonators in Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Using Higher-Order Antisymmetric Modes

This letter presents miniature millimeter wave (mmWave, above 30 GHz) acoustic resonators based on a single-layer thin-film lithium niobate (LN) platform. More specifically, we present high performance third-order antisymmetric (A3) mode laterally excited bulk acoustic resonators (XBAR). Compared to prior demonstrations, the proposed platform features a compact footprint due to a smaller lateral wavelength and aperture. We showcase an A3 mode device operating at 39.8 GHz with a high extracted electromechanical coupling (k^2) of 4%, a high 3-dB series resonance quality factor (Q_s) of 97, and a high 3-dB anti-resonance quality factor (Q_p) of 342, leading to a figure of merit (FoM=k^2*Q_p) of 13.7 with a footprint of 32x44 micron^2. To demonstrate frequency scalability, the piezoelectric film thickness is varied while keeping the device layout. As a result, we present a multitude of high-performance devices covering a wide frequency range of 30-50 GHz, validating the proposed XBAR design at mmWave.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Periodically Poled Piezoelectric Lithium Niobate Resonator for Piezoelectric Power Conversion

As the demand for compact and efficient power conversion systems increases, piezoelectric power converters have gained attention for their ability to replace bulky magnetic inductors with acoustic resonators, enabling higher power density and improved efficiency. Achieving optimal converter performance requires resonators with high quality factor ($Q$), strong electromechanical coupling ($k^2$), high power handling capability, and a spurious-free response. Lithium niobate (LN) has emerged as a promising material in this context due to its high figure of merit (FoM = $Q \cdot k^2$). While previous studies on single-layer LN resonators have demonstrated high FoM values, they typically operate at relatively low resonance frequencies ($f_s$). Recently, periodically poled piezoelectric film (P3F) structures, formed by stacking piezoelectric layers with alternating crystal orientations, have shown the potential to both scale up the operating frequency and enhance the FoM compared to single-layer counterparts in piezoelectric power conversion. This work presents the first P3F thickness-extensional (TE) LN resonator for power conversion, operating at 19.23 MHz, with a large \textit{$k^2$} of 29\% and a high \textit{Q} of 3187, achieving a state-of-the-art (\textit{ $f_s \cdot Q$}) product among piezoelectric power resonators. A high-power testing procedure is performed to systematically study the nonlinear behavior and power handling of P3F LN for power applications. With further optimization, P3F TE resonators have the potential to open up a new design space for high-power and high-frequency power conversion.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Acoustic resonators above 100 GHz

Piezoelectric resonators are a common building block for signal processing because of their miniature size, low insertion loss, and high quality factor. As consumer electronics push to millimeter waves frequencies, designers must increase the operating frequency of the resonator. The current state-of-the-art approach to increase the operating frequency is to decrease the thickness of the piezoelectric film to shorten the acoustic wavelength or to use higher order modes. Unfortunately, maintaining high crystal quality typically requires thicker piezoelectric layers. Thinner layers suffer from higher defect densities and increased surface damping, which degrade the electromechanical coupling and quality factor. While acoustic high order modes can also increase operating frequency, the electromechanical coupling rapidly decreases with increasing mode number. Here, we overcome these limitations by utilizing a piezoelectric stack of three layers of lithium niobate with alternating crystallographic orientations to preferentially support higher order modes and thereby enhance the electromechanical coupling without degrading the quality factor. Our approach improves the figure of merit of millimeter-wave acoustic resonators by roughly an order of magnitude greater compared to state-of-the-art piezoelectric resonators above 60 GHz. This concept of alternating crystallographic orientations facilitates a new path to develop millimeter wave resonators with high figures of merit, low insertion loss, and miniature footprints, enabling new applications in millimeter wave signal processing and computing.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Thin-film scandium aluminum nitride bulk acoustic resonator with high Q of 208 and K2 of 9.5% at 12.5 GHz

This work describes sputtered scandium aluminum nitride (ScAlN) thin-film bulk acoustic resonators (FBAR) at 12.5 GHz with high electromechanical coupling (k2) of 9.5% and quality factor (Q) of 208, resulting in a figure of merit (FoM, Qk2) of 19.8. ScAlN resonators employ a stack of 90 nm thick 20% Sc doping ScAlN piezoelectric film on the floating bottom 38 nm thick platinum (Pt) electrode to achieve low losses and high coupling toward centimeter wave (cmWave) frequency band operation. Three fabricated and FBARs are reported, show promising prospects of ScAlN-Pt stack towards cmWave front-end filters.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Thermal Resilience of Suspended Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Acoustic Resonators up to 550 °C

This paper reports a suspended thin-film lithium niobate (LN) piezoelectric resonator platform surviving high annealing temperatures of 550 °C, among the highest temperature at which the thermal resilience of suspended LN resonators is studied. Acoustic resonators are built on 600 nm thick transferred stoichiometric LN on silicon wafers with 40 nm thick platinum (Pt) electrodes, selected for high temperature operation. The fabricated resonators are first annealed at 250 °C, and the anneal temperature is incrementally increased to 550 °C after 7 rounds of annealing. The annealing is shown to upshift resonant frequencies and can increase the quality factor (Q), within a temperature range, before it gradually damages the device performance. This work presents promising results for using the suspended thin-film LN platform for resonators, sensors, and transducers in harsh thermal environments.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Lithium Tantalate Bulk Acoustic Resonator For Piezoelectric Power Conversion

We present the first lithium tantalate (LT) thickness-extensional (TE) mode bulk acoustic resonators designed for piezoelectric power conversion, showcasing a low temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) of -13.56 ppm/K. These resonators also exhibit high quality factors (Q) of 1698, and electromechanical coupling coefficients ($k^2$) of 8.8%, making them suitable for efficient power conversion applications. A grounded ring structure is leveraged for spurious mode-free response and figure of merit (FoM=$k^2 \times Q$) enhancement near the series resonance. The temperature dependency of Q and $k^2$ is experimentally tested over a wide temperature range, from $25^{\circ}\text{C}$ to $130^{\circ}\text{C}$, demonstrating the resonators thermal stability and consistent performance under varying conditions. This work highlights the potential of LT resonators in the future development of thermally stable power electronic systems, enabling more reliable and efficient piezoelectric power converters.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Ku-Band AlScn-On-Diamond SAW Resonators with Phase Velocity above 8600 m/s

In this work, an Aluminum Scandium Nitride (AlScN) on Diamond Sezawa-mode surface acoustic wave (SAW) platform for RF filtering at Ku-band (12-18 GHz) is demonstrated. Thanks to the high acoustic velocity and low-loss diamond substrate, the prototype resonator at 12.9 GHz achieves a high phase velocity ($v_p$) of 8671 m/s, a maximum Bode-$Q$ of 408, and coupling coefficient ($k_{\mathrm{eff}}^2$) of 2.1%, outperforming high-velocity substrates such as SiC and sapphire by more than 20% in velocity. Resonators spanning 8-18 GHz are presented. The platform's high power handling above 12.5 dBm is also experimentally validated.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2024

Low-Loss Higher-Order Cross-Sectional Lamé Mode SAW Devices in 10-20 GHz Range

This paper presents surface acoustic wave (SAW) acoustic delay lines (ADL) for studying propagation loss mechanisms in Lithium Niobate (LN). Devices were fabricated by depositing 50 nm aluminum patterns on 600 nm X-Cut LN on amorphous silicon on silicon carbide, where longitudinally dominant SAW was targeted. Upon fabrication, higher-order thickness-based cross-sectional Lamé modes and Rayleigh modes were studied for their Q factors using acoustic delay lines. Utilizing bi-directional electrodes, ADL with lateral lambda values ranging from 0.4 um to 0.6 um were measured. Higher order Lame modes were found to have consistently higher Q factors than their Rayleigh mode counterpart, on the order of 1000-3000, showing high-frequency SAW devices as still viable candidates for frequency scaling without a substantial increase in loss.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2024

Lithium Niobate Resonators for Power Conversion: Spurious Mode Suppression Via an Active Ring

In an effort to shift the paradigm of power conversion, acoustic resonators pose as compact alternatives for lossy magnetic inductors. Currently, the acoustic resonator's restricted inductive region between its series and parallel resonances constitutes a major bottleneck, which is further diminished due to spurious modes. Prior work has partially addressed this issue by the introduction of various design guidelines tailored to the material and the mode of interest, but can only provide a limited spurious-free region. Alternatively, a separated grounded ring on LN operating in the first order symmetric lamb mode (S1), maintains optimal device performance with a large fractional spurious mode suppressed region, but has been shown to experience voltage breakdown at high power near the ring at different potentials. Hence, we propose a new spurious mode suppressing design leveraging a thickened active ring in lithium niobate (LN), maintaining high Q and k2 while also reducing resistance at resonance (Rr), and mitigating breakdown effects.

physics.app-ph↗