581

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 64, NO. 5, MAY 1976

Surface Acoustic Waves and SAW Materials

Absfracf-Materialparametersnecessaryforoptimumdesign
of surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) devices are reviewed. Velocity, coupling
coefficient, powerflowangle,temperature
coefficients, propagation
loss (including air loading, diffraction, and beam steering), and equivalent circuit parameters are considered. A brief introduction to the nature of surface waves is followed by suffEient theoretical information
to allow fullunderstandingandderivation
oftheproperties and paA convenient tabularsummary of important
rameters citedabove.
SAW material propertiesis included.

DELAYED
ELECTROMAGNETIC
OUTPUT

ELECTROMAGNETIC
INPUT

MATERIAL

I/

PIEZOELECTRIC

INTRODUCTION

PROPER understanding of thepropertiesandlimitations of surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) substrate materials

is essentialfortherealization
of efficientdeviceperformance. It is thepurpose of thispaper to provideuseful
guidelines to all major material factors and tradeoffs affecting
SAW devicedesign upto microwavefrequencies.Included
powerflowangle
will be SAW velocity,couplingconstant,
(theslope of whichdeterminestheextent
of beamsteering
and diffraction), temperature coefficients of velocity and delay,capacitanceperunitlength
of interdigitaltransducers,
equivalent dielectric constant, propagation
loss (including air
loading,diffraction,and
beamsteering losses), andabrief
mention of mass loading. A convenienttabularsummaryof
many of theseandotherparametersforpopular
SAW substrates will be presented in the conclusion to this paper.
After a brief introduction to the nature of surface waves included at the end of this section, the remainder of the paper
will bedevoted to the detaileddescriptionsandderivations
necessary to fully understand and utilize the information cited
above. In this way a complete description of surface acoustic
waves, SAW materials,andtheirproperties
will result.Sufficientdetail will beincluded to allow understandingbythe
novice in the field, while sufficient depth will be provided for
the experienced SAW engineer to deepen his understanding of
SAW materials. Many mayfindthatmost
of the immediate
information they seek wiU be contained in the summary Table;
however, with the constant discovery of new materials it will
eventuallybenecessary
t o resort to the theory in order to
compute design parameters for orientations not tabulated.
A schematic illustration of the generation and propagation
of a surface acoustic or Rayleigh [ 1 ] wave is shown in Fig. 1.
Theelastic waveis launchedbythe
fields generatedat the
interdigital [ 21 transducer (IDT) acting through thepiezoelectric effect. The energy of the waveis exponentially decaying
into the materialand is generallyconfined to withinafew
wavelengthsof the surface.Theactualdisplacements
of a
rectangular gridof
materialpointsillustrative
of asurface
wave on an isotropic material are shown in Fig. 2. The mathematical formalism necessary to generate a diagram such as this
in the general anisotropic case will be presented in the next
section.
Manuscript received October 24, 1975.
Theauthor is with the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories
(AFSC), Hanscom AFB, MA 01731.

INTERDIGITALTYPE

ACOUSTIC
SURFACEWAVE

Fig. 1. Schematicrepresentation of the launching

a surface acoustic wave.

and propagation o f

Fig. 2. Illustration of the displacements of a rectangular grid of material

points characteristic of a surfaceacousticwave
o n anisotropic
material.

SAW PROPAGATION

ON ANISOTROPIC CRYSTALS

Introduction
The purpose of this section is to review the complete theoreticalsolution
of acoustic-wave propagationonarbitrary
anisotropicpiezoelectricmediaasoriginallydevelopedby
Jones etal. [ 3 ] , [ 4 ] . This is accomplishedbysolving
the
continuum equations of motion together with Maxwell's equations under the quasi-static assumption, the strain-mechanical
displacement relations, the piezoelectric constitutive relations,
and theappropriateboundaryconditions.
Theseare all, of
course, in tensor form [ 5 1 but, since onedimensional propagation is assumed, several simplificationswill be possible.
General Equations
The set of linear equations describingacoustic-wave propagationinanarbitraryanisotropicpiezoelectricmedium
is, in
standard tensor notation,as follows [ 5 ] :
aT..
aZui
equation of motion
pat?

v=
axi

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MAY 1976

582

ski = 2

(- ) :

strain-mechanical
linear
placementrelations

auk

ax,

dis-

(2 1

aD,_
-0
axi

E,.

=--

acp

derived from Maxwell's equations

under
the
quasi-static
assumption
(3)

axi

q=p
's - '
vkl
eniiEn
kl
D~ = e;kl

skl+ ,$"En

linear
piezoelectric
constitutiverelations

(4)

where T is the stress, p the mass density, u the mechanical displacement, S thestrain, D the electricdisplacement, E the
electric field, and cp the electric potential. The primed quantities, that is the elastic constants (cjjkl), the piezoelectric con,
to arostants ( e ; k ) , and the dielectric constants ( ~ k ) refer
tatedcoordinatesystemthroughtheEulertransformation
matrix [ 6 ] inwhich wave propagation will alwaysbealong
the 1 direction. Note that the summation convention (over 1,
2, 3) for repeated indices is employed.
By substitution, (1) through (4) can be reducedto
Ckkll(k,li + e i i i P , k i = pui,
e:kluk,li- Ei'kV,ki

= 0.

j = 1,
2,

(5)

selected. However, if for a given velocity four such roots cannot be found the possibility of degenerate surface waves must
be pursued. Upon obtaining the admissible values
of a from
(lo), correspondingvalues of (to withinaconstantfactor)
can be found for each a from the linear homogeneous system
cited above.
Thetotalfields(mechanicaldisplacementandpotential)
of the fields
may now be expressed as a linear combination
associated with the admissible values of a. For x3 > 0

(6)

Thedotnotation
refers to differentiationwithrespect to
time, while anindexprecededbyacommadenotesdifferentiation with respect to a space coordinate.
Equations (1) through (6) are, of course, valid only within
the crystalline substrate, i.e., for x3 > 0 as defined in Fig. 3.
This figure also defines the geometry under consideration and
illustrates the meaning of o h = 0, and wh = 00 corresponding
to ashortedsurfaceandafreesurface,
respectively. For
- h Q x3 < 0 Laplace's equation describes the electric potential

Q'cp = 0.

Fig. 3. Illustration of the coordinate system used to defme SAW propaw

l
i be necessarywhencomputingthe
gation.Theshortingplane
quantity Aulv.

i=1,2,3
4

cp=

B(')B$') exp [-a(')wxg/us] exp [jw(t - xl/us)].

1=1

In the region - h < x3 < 0, the potential is a solution

Laplace's equation (7). Asolutionsatisfyingthecontinuity
condition at x3 = 0 and vanishing at x3 = - h is

of

(7)

Surface-Wave Solutions
Solutions of (5) and ( 6 ) are assumed to be of the standard
complex traveling-wave form ip which us is the wave velocity,
a the exponential decay into the crystal, and
w the steadystate angular frequency.

exp [ j w ( t - xl/us)],

-h

< x3 < 0.

(13)

Mechanical andelectricalboundaryconditions
[ 3 ] , [4]
must also be satisfied by substituting the waveforms (1 1)-( 13)
intotheappropriateexpressionsfortheseconditions.This
yields a set of homogenous equations for the so-called partial
ui = & exp [-awx3/us] exp bw(t - x1/us)], i = 1, 2, 3 (8) field amplitudes B('). Thetranscendentalequationobtained
of thematrix of coefficients of
by settingthedeterminant
cp=& exp [-awx3/usl exp [jw(r- x1/us)1.
( 9 ) thissystemequal
to zerodeterminesthe
surface-wave veThe displacements and potentials are considered to be inde- locities for agiven set of a(').
Once (IO) and the set of B(') equations havebeensimulpendent of the x2 coordinate.
taneously
solved by computer iterative techniques [4] for the
Substituting (8) and (9) into (5) and ( 6 ) yieldsalinear
actual
set
of a(') (with associated 0;')) and the actual surface
homogeneous system of four equations in the unknowns 0 1 ,
&,f 1 3 , and p 4 . The determinant of the coefficients of the un- wave velocity, the partial field amplitudes B('), = 1 , 2 , 3 , 4
may be calculated to within a constant factor.
knowns in these equations must be zero in order that a nonTheseamplitudesare
useddirectly t o evaluate thecomtrivial solution exist, i.e.,
ponents of the mechanical displacement of (1 1) and the elecA 8 a 8 + j A l a 7 + A 6 a 6 + j A s a 5 + A4a4 + j A 3 d
tric potential of (12). The components
of the electricfield,
strain,
electric
displacement,
and
stress
as
functions
of a x 3
+ A 2 a 2 + j A l a + A o = O (10)
follow from (3), (2), and (4), respectively. Finally, the comwhere the coefficients A , , n = 0 , 1, * . , 8 , are purely real and ponents of total time averageelectromechanicalpowerflow
aparticularvalue
of us hasbeenassumed.Since
the fields are given by
must be bounded, orgo to zero as x3 + 30, only the roots with
nonnegative real parts are allowed. In addition, these roots are
Re [ Tiu? J dxg + Time Average Power = - either pure imaginary or occur in pairs with positive and negativerealparts.
In general, roots occur such that four (three
Re [cpbrl dx3 (14)
for nonpiezoelectric crystals) with positive
real parts can be

:km

SLOBODNIK: SAW MATERIALS

583

where thetwotermsare,
respectively, thetotalcomplex
mechanical and electrical power components.
Considerable simplifications of the basic surface-wave equations, (1 l ) and (12), result in the
case of isotropic or other
degeneratematerials.Thereader
is referred to the literature
for these expressions [ 7 1 .
Applications o f the Theory

Using the expressions derived above, it is possible t o generate

alarge body of necessary and useful SAW information [ 81.
Three types of data are particularly important:
surface-wave
velocities, thequantity Av/v asdefinedbelow,andelectromechanicalpowerflowangles.Since
we are dealing with
[8] preanisotropiccyrstals,thesequantitiesaregenerally
sented
for
various
crystalline
orientations
as continuous
graphical functions of either direction of propagation in the
plane of a plate (plates), as functions of the direction of the
platenormal(boules),orforsimultaneousrotation
of both
the plate normal and direction of propagation (cylinders). An
example of this typeof curve is given in Fig. 4.
The quantity AV/Vis defined [3] for piezoelectric materials
as the percentage difference in velocity between free surfaces
( o h = m) and surfaces coated with an infinitesimally thin perfect conductor ( o h = 0). This quantity has been shown [ 9 ] ,
[ 101 to be a direct estimate of surface-wave coupling to interdigital transducers. It is interesting to note that, as expected,
excellent agreement is obtained when A U / V for quartz is comparedwiththecouplingcoefficient
derived byCoquinand
Tiersten [ 1 11.
The power flow angle cp is defined in Fig. 5 as the angle between the time average electromechanical power flow vector
and the direction of propagation (phase velocity vector). Unless cp identicallyequalszero(definedasapure-modeaxis),
the condition of beam steering is said to occur. The slope of
thepowerflow
angle, that is acp/M, isa highly important
quantity.Itsmagnitudedeterminestheamount
of beam
steeringresultingfroma
given unintentionalmisalignment
from a pure-mode axis, and its magnitude and sign determines
the extent of surface-wave diffraction. Later sections will deal
with these subjects in detail.

TEMPERATURE
COEFFICIENTS

OF VELOCITY AND

3.6 x

-3

2.8a10

1.2 a IO

-3

0.4 a 10

DELAY

Introduction

Another important parameter in many applications is temperature sensitivity. For example, Carr et al. [ 121 have shown
that the principal limitation on the application of surface wave
encodersanddecoders to multiple-access securecommunications systems is the degradation of the peak-tosidelobe ratio
of theautocorrelationfunctionduetotemperaturedifferences. This is illustrated in Fig. 6 . Additionally, the temperature stability of the center frequency of
surface-wave bandpass
filters is a direct function of the temperature coefficients
of
the material and orientation being used.

54

I8

WOPAGATlOh

90

126

162

3(RECTlON,B(DEGREESI

Fig. 4. Velocity, Au/u, and power flow angle curves for Y-cut LiTaO,.

given temperature,and divide bythevelocityatthattemperature [ 141.

For many applications, the parameter of interest is not the
temperaturecoefficient of velocity but the changein delay
time with temperature. The first-order temperature coefficient
of delay is given by

ar

I
1
1 av,
1 au,
1 a7
Temperature Coefficient Computations
;E=(;)
--=a- v, aT (15)
Thetemperaturecoefficients
of surface-wave velocityand
delay [ 131 have previously been tabulated [ 141 for piezoelec- where l/v,avs/aT is the velocity temperature coefficient, 7 =
tricmaterials of interest.The mainresults of thisstudyare
[/Us is the delaytime, I is thedistancebetweentwomaterial
summarized in Fig. 7 along with Av/v information. The tern- points, and (Y is the coefficient of thermal expansion.
peraturecoefficient
of velocity is readilycalculated
using
Temperature Coefficient,
Tradeoffs
available data
on
the
temperature
coefficients
of
the
elastic,
piezoelectric,anddielectricconstantsplusthedensity
to com-Ideally,onedesireszerotemperaturecoefficient
of delay
pute velocities atvarioustemperatures,obtaintheslopeat
a and high coupling. At presentthis is not possible (asillus-

z(L)=Ts-<aT

IEEE,PROCEEDINGS OF THE

584

MAY 1976

Fig. 5. Schematic representation of the profilesof a propagating acoustic surface waveon a crystalline substrate. Angle 0 defines direction of propagation with respect to reference crystalline axis, and angle@ defines deviation o f power flow from phase velocity direction.

i----"""""'""

TI3 BIT BARKER SEWENCE

0.07000

LINb03

0.04000

4,+*

0.02000

1%:.

0.01000
0.00700

2yo

0.00400

<

0.02-

0.001000.000700.00040

0.00020-

OUARTZ ST

yxA

x L'Nb03
0

LITa03

0 . 0 0 0 ~ ~A-QUARTZ
0.00007

A + IRAMANS)
Fig. 6 . Correlation
peak
and
maximum
sidelobe
amplitudes
(left
ordinate)
and
correlation
peak-to-maximum-sidelobe
ratio
(right
ordinate) asa function of
PHASE DIFFERENCE,

0.ooow 0.00002

80

60

40

20ppm

TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT OF DELAY

for a 13-bit Barker code sequence.

w is the number of wavelengths
between decoder transducers while A T is the temperature difference
er al. [ 12 1).
between encoder and decoder (after Cam

tratedin
Fig. 7),thusrequiring
design tradeoffs. ST-cut
quartz [ 131has theadvantage of zerotemperaturecoefficient, low-cost, and the ready availability of large substrates.
Its coupling is, however, quite low. The 41.5' orientation [ 151
of LiNb03 appears to have excellent properties for that material. In fact, additional investigations near this
cut have resultedinfurtherimprovements
[ 161.
Telluriumdioxide
(TeOz) hastw,o orientations with zero temperature coefficients
of delay.Unfortunately,both
havelowcoupling
together
with extremely poor beam steering and diffraction properties.
LiTa03 seems to offer the best current compromise between

Fig. I. Temperature coefficient of delay versus

orientations.

Avlv for popular SAW

coupling and temperature sensitivity, although recent work on

thefundamentalproperties
of temperature
compensation
seems to offer significant hope for the future[ 171.
MATERIAL PARAMETERS FOR EQUIVALENT
CIRCUIT USE
Interdigital Transducer Equivalent Circuit
Since the interdigital transducer is fundamental to any SAW
device,considerableefforthasbeendevotedover
the past
several years towards obtaining an accurate IDT model [ 181[ 201 . Several approaches have been developed which can successfully predict the performance of apodized (varying finger

585

SLOBODNIK: SAW MATERIALS

Fig. 9 . Illustration of the definition of Dx/Lx used in the calculation

of fmger capacitance.

Delay line insertion loss (IL) then becomes

IL (dB) = - 10 loglo (TEl)(TE2)

Fig. 8 . Generalizedequivalentcircuit
of periodicunapodizedinterdigitaltransduceroperatinginmatchedtransmissionline
system.
Z T represents theacoustic
and
fmger-capacitance
elements.
RC
representsthe ohmic loss inthe interdigitalfingers, C, represents
parasiticshuntcapacitance,and
ZL is theimpedance of the l w y
tuninginductor.
VG and RG are theequivalentcircuit elements of
the generator.

assuming different input and output transducers.

Capacitance per Unit Length and Equivalent Dielectric
Constant

The total static capacitanceCT is given by

cj"= C
overlap) nonperiodic transducers. Since, however, the material
parameters necessary as input to these more powerful models
are generally the same as those used in simpler approaches,we
shall confineourattentiontotheequivalent
crossed-field
circuit model of a periodic uniformaverlap interdigital transducer operated in a matched transmission line system as illustrated in Fig. 8.
Here VG and RG represent the equivalent circuit of the generator; RL represents the loss associated with the inductor, L ;
& represents the conduction lossin thetransducerfingers;
C, the parasitic shunt capacitance; and CT is the usual static
capacitance of thetransducer fingers. Note thatboththe
acoustic radiation susceptance BJf) and the acoustic radiation
conductance Ca(f) are functions of frequency as given [ 181,
[ 2 11 by the following expressions:

F F ~ -~ ~ITCFFV,.?N
V ~

fo

WO

where L is the acoustic aperture in

wavelengths,and C F is~
the capacitance per unit length of a single period (this is twice
the value of a finger pair). C'F is fundamental to IDT analysis
and is given by [ 221
C'F=~(&

+ 1)(6.5(Dx/Lx)2 + 1.08(Dx/Lx)+ 2.37) X

(23)

Theparameter
stant given by [ 23 I

is the relativeequivalentdielectriccon-

where e l l , 33, and 13 are actual dielectric constants at constant stress with the I direction being the direction of propagation of the surface wave. Finally, the ratio Dx/Lx is the finger
width to center-to<enter spacing ratio as illustrated in Fig. 9.
Coupling Constant k 2

The basic measure [24] of the efficiency of a SAW material

is the coupling constant k 2 given by [ 231
Here

and
( f - fo)

x=nN-

fo

where k2 is the electromechanical coupling coefficient to be

described below, fo = wo/2n is the acoustic synchronous freof periodsintheinterdigital
quency,and N is the number
transducer.
Transducer loss is definedas the ratio between the power
whichcouldbedelivered
to load
a
(transducer)froma
matchedsignalgeneratorand
theactualpower
leaving the
acoustic port in the desired direction [ 2 1] . Thus assuming a
complex current IT flowing through ZT in Fig. 8, transducer
efficiency (TE) can be writtenas

wherebidirectionalityhasbeenaccountedforwithanadditional factor of
IT can be determined in terms of circuit
parameters and VG using standard network analysis.

a.

Note that for many materials a

good approximation to k 2 is
justtwice AvIv, againunderscoringtheimportance
of this
parameter.

PROPAGATIONLoss
One of the major sources of overall device insertion loss at
microwave frequencies is propagation loss or attenuation. Not
only is the magnitude of this phenomena important for predicting absolute insertion loss and dynamic range, but its frequency dependence is equally important [ 251.
Total propagation loss is a superposition of three different
mechanisms [26]. 1) Interaction with thermally excited elastic waves. 2)Scatteringbycrystallinedefectsandsurface
scratches. 3) Energy lost to air adjacent to the surface.The
first mechanism is an inherent crystalline property, the magnitude of which can be predicted using viscosity theories
[27].
The second is, of course, highly undesirable and, fortunately,
can be made negligible by proper crystal growth and polishing
techniques [26]. Thefinalmechanism is causedby the surface wave being phase matched to a longitudinal bulk wave in
the air which results in a leaky-wave phenomena [ 281. This

5 86

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MAY 1976

Figs. 10 and 11. Note the approximate

dependence of the former and the linear dependence of the
latter.This
allowsanempiricalexpression
forpropagation
loss to be derived from the data.
[ 301 are illustrated in

f 2

Propagation Loss (dB//&) = (VAC) F 2 + (AIR) F

g+

VAC and AIR are tabuwhere F is in GHz. The coefficients

latedforpopularsubstratesattheend
of thispaper.Equation ( 2 6 ) would be used, for example, when designing filters
having particular bandpass characteristics.

20

07

0.4

DIFFRACTIONAND BEAM

W
V

0.2

In

STEERING

Parabolic Diffraction Theory

(26)

200

400 700

2000

4000

in

FREQUENCY (MHz)

0
V

Fig.10. SAW attenuation in vacuumasa

functionoffrequencyfor
YZ LiNbO,, 001, 1 1 0 and 1 1 1 , 1 1 0 , Bi,,GeO,,, and Y X quartz.
Experimental slopes are all approximatelyfa. Data for quartz courtesy
of Budreau and C a n [ 301.

Diffraction of surface waves is aphysicalconsequence

of
their propagation and can vary considerably depending upon
the anisotropy of the substrate chosen. In fact, it is the slope
of the power flow angle which determines the extent of both
diffractionand
beamsteering
[31]. There is aninherent
tradeoff between these two important sourcesof loss.
A useful theory for calculating diffraction
fields when the
velocity anisotropy near pure-mode axes can be approximated
by a parabola has been developed by Cohen
[32]. By using a
smallangle approximation, he showed that for certain
cases,
the higher orders of the expression for the velocity could be
neglected past the second order. That is,

A
4

where y = &$/a6 and Bo is the angular orientation of the puremode axis. By comparingthesespproximations
to an exact
solutionforelectromagneticdiffractioninuniaxially
anisotropicmedia,Cohenshowed
that the diffraction integral
reduces to Fresnel's integral with the following change

0.4

z
0

2a

0.2-

z
W

+
+
4
w

>
4

0.1

LiNbO,

B i,,Gc020

:
2
D:

3
u)

500

lo00

1500

2000

F R E Q U E N C Y (MH+)

Fig. 11. SAW attenuation due t o air loading as a function of frequency

for materials listed in Fig. 10. It is interesting t o note nearly identical
results for LiNbO, and Bi,, GeO,, .

so-called air loading can be eliminated by vacuum encapsulation or minimized by the use of a light gas.
Propagationlossescanbedeterminedbydirectlyprobing
[ 261. In this method, the
the acousticenergywithalaser
surface wave deflectsasmallfraction
of theincidentlight,
which is detected with a photomultiplier tube and measured
with a lock-in amplifier. The deflected light is directly proportional to the acoustic power of the surface wave.
Air loadingcanbedeterminedbyplacingdelay
lines ina
vacuum system and reducing the pressure below 1 torr while
monitoring the change in insertion loss. Vacuum attenuation
is, of course,. the difference between the total propagation loss
in air and the air loading component.
Frequency dependence of vacuum attenuation and air loading for three of the most popular SAW substrates [261, [291,

z^'=z^ll + y l .

(28)

Szabo and Slobodnik [ 3 1 ] introduced the absolute magnitude

signs to account for those materials
having y < - 1 and ;he
hatted terms to stand for
wavelength scaled parameters ( Z =
Z/A). In other words, diffraction is either accelerated or retarded depending on the value and sign of 7. Excellent agreement [ 3 1 ] between this parabolic theory and experiment has
been obtained whenever a good parabolic fit to the velocity
is possible. Insome cases, however,amoregeneraltheory
is required.
Angular Spectrum of Waves Diffraction Theory

In order to solve the most general homogeneous anisotropic

problem,
Kharusi
and
Fame11 [33] applied the angular
spectrum-of-waves technique to surface-wave diffraction. Their
theory is valid for both the near and far fields, and for any directionincludingoff-axisorientations.Itsonlylimitation
is
the requirement of accurate knowledge of velocity values for
the surface of interest. In implementing their theory the
following integration is performednumericallyforeach
field
point:
A ( X ,Z ) =-

sin K L / 2

.~xPI{(K~X+KJ(K~)IZI))~K~.
(29)
Here K3 and K l are the projections of the wave-vector K along
the Z and X axes, respectively, or in general, along directions

581

SLOBODNIK: SAW MATERIALS

THEORY

e = o . 8.0

-40

8=064b = O

EXPERIMENT

e=o60. 8 = 5 3

2~66

..

4~66

__

2:s

_.

2:66

?:I242

_.

2.1242

..

?:I242

..

5.1242

+40

-40

*40

TRANSVERSE
DIMENSION

-40

140

-40

*40

(WAVELENGTHS)

Fig. 12. Theoretical and experimental surface-wave profiles illustrating

diffraction near 1 1 1-axis o f 211-cut gallium arsenide.
indicates distance
P is laser probediameter inacoustic
for propagation in wavelengths frominput transducer, 8 gives themisorientationfrom111-axis,and
wavelengths.

perpendicular to and parallel to the transducer. The effect of

introducing a laser probe in the profile measurements can be
accommodated [ 3 1 ] by inserting
sin K1PI2
KIP12

(30)

(inwhich P is the probe diameter) into the preceding integral (29).

The real power of the exact anisotropic theory can be illustratedbyitsability
to predicteven the finestructure of a
diffraction pattern on a highly nonparabolic velocity surface,
includingprofileasymmetrydue
t o beamsteering.
An example is shownin Fig. 12. The case studied [31 ] concerns
surface waves launched close tothe
111-axis of 211-cut
gallium arsenseat afrequency of 280 MHz. Transducer
widthswere L = 5 1. This orientation waschosen [ 3 1 ] because the velocity is nonparabolicand changesveryrapidly
of Fig. 12 shows profiles for
with direction. The first column
waves propagating exactly along the pure-mode 11 1-axis, a direction corresponding t o @ = 0. Also note that the smoothing
effect of the laser probe has not yet been included
( f = 0).
For the second column a misalignment of 0.6' from the 11 1axis has been introduced, and the waves begin to take on the
asymmetricbehaviorandbeamsteering
of the experimental
measurements(shownin
the right-handcolumn)obtained
using the laser probe [ 2 6 ] technique. The third column introduces thesameamount
of angularmisalignment as column

two but, unlike the previhus columns, includes the effect of a

laser probe diameter of P = 5.3 wavelengths. The agreement
between this column and the experimental curves is excellent.
Quantitative Choice of Theory
The versatility of the exact angular spectrumof waves theory
is farmore
hasbeendemonstrated;however,thisapproach
computationallycomplicatedandcostlythantheparabolic
theory. It also requires precise velocity surfaces as input data.
Given a certain material, then, the designer must have guidelines from whichhe can choosethe simplest appropriate theory.
The closeness of a given velocity surface to a parabolic curve
canbe determinedbyfittingthesurface
to aparabolaand
noting any deviation. In particular, second-order fits were obtained [31 I for various materials by using a least squares fit
withrelativevelocityvalues
computedto sevensignificant
places within a range
of -+soof (e = 0 . The maximum
deviation of the fit from the velocity surface can be defined in
terms of the quantity ISMI. For comparativepurposes, this
deviation is expressed as a percentage
of the actual velocity
and, for convenience,is multiplied by a factorof l o s , i.e.,

e,)

A complete study of diffraction loss using the exact theory on

many velocity surfaces not perfectly parabolic resulted in the
following
conclusion.
Anisotropy
may
conveniently
be

588

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MAY 1916

DIFFRACTION LOSS rn S U E D

11+y1

TRANSDUCER SEPARATION,( );/:'

.01

a4

.I

.4

\i
H
Y

(t,izyl+rl
Fig. 13. Univecsa! diffraction loss curve for all parabolic materials as a
11 + yl . To convert t o theactual distance in wavefunction of (Z/L2)
lengths on horizontal scale simply insert i,width of your transducer
in wavelengths, and y (from Table I) appropriate t o your material.

141

lor
6

2
-40 -20

20

40

-40 -20

20

40

-40 -20

20

40

DISTANCE I N TRANSVEPSE DIMENSION IWAVELENGTHS)

Fig. 14. Illustration of the two orders of magnitude diffraction suppression achieved using the 40.04 Bi,, GeO,, minimal diffraction cut. An
acoustic aperture of L = 40.56 wavelengths was used.

grouped into two categories-parabolic (0 < 16, I ,< 2.0) and

nonparabolic (2.0 5 16, I < 00). Higher order terms discarded
scaled by the factor I 1 + y I, no diffraction spreading occurs
in the approximation of (27) become significant [ 3 11 for non- for ideal parabolic surfaces having y = - 1. Material orientaparabolic surfaces.
tions approaching this ideal have, in fact, been discovered
[34] .
However for velocity surfaces having 16, I 5 2.0, the para- A set of experimental SAW profilesforthe40.04minimal
bolic diffractiontheoryyields highly accurateresults.Thus
diffraction cut (MDC) on bismuth germanium oxide are
prefor all materialsmeetingthiscriterion,diffractionpatterns
sented in Fig. 14. Experimentally, diffraction is suppressed by
are exactly equivalent in form, and
merely scaled in distance
a factor of 100. These MDC orientations areallowinganew
by the factor I 1 + y I allowing universal diffraction loss curves class of highly apodized acoustic surface-wave filters and longto be calculated [ 3 11. One such curve shown & Fig. 13 is a time-delay devices to be realized.
plot of diffraction loss versus the parameter (Z/L*)
I 1 + y 1.
The Beam Steering Diffraction Tradeoff
This curve allows the determination of loss for any combinaAs mentioned at the outset
of this section, there is an intion of transducer width and separation forall parabolic anisoherent
tradeoff
between
beam
steering
and
diffraction.In
tropic velocitysurfaces.Itwascalculatedbyintegratingthe
anisotropic
materials,
beam
steering
occurswheneQertranscomplex acoustic amplitude over the aperture of the receiving
&, even though
ducers are misaligned from a pure-mode axis
transducerforidenticalunapodizedinputandoutputtransthey
may
be
perfectly
aligned
with
each
other.
Beam steering
ducers [31].
is
the
pulling
away
of
the
acoustic
beam
from
the
transducer
In the Fresnel region the l o s s z e y exceeds 1.6 dB, which is
propagation
axis
by
an
additional
angle,
q
5
=
y
(0
- eo), as
the loss at the far-field length, Z = ZF (where the final peak in
the beam profile has started its descent to a far-field pattern). showninFig. 5. Let us discuss thistradeoffinmoredetail.
Diffraction is a fixed phenomenon for agiven material, while
The distance and transducer width at which a
given loss will
beam
steering can be controlled by precise X-ray alignment at
occurcanalwaysbe
given in far-field lengths.Forexample,
the
expense
of increased device cost. Both, however, influence
the 3-dB loss point is
the choice of SAW substrate [35]. An example of how the
combined loss of beam steering and diffraction varies among
materials is illustrated 1351 in Fig. 15 where the loss is given
where now
as a function of y.
For Fig. 15 the acoustic aperture is 2 = 80 waveletahs, the
(33) distance between input and output transducers
is 2 = 5000
wavelengths, and the misalignment from the desired pure-mode
In the far field, the
loss mechanism is the spreading of the
axis, or the beam steering (BS) angle, is BS Q = 0.lo. In order
beam with a slope of 10 dB/decade. The far-field loss can be
to use these data for practical situations,
it is only necessary
approximated by
to insert the slope of the power flow angle appropriate to the
z^
type p d cutunderconsideration.It
is alsouseful to note
(34)
Loss(dB)=-lOlog,.
that
Z
=
t
f
;
where
t
is
the
time
delay
and
f the frequency of
ZF
the device of interest.
Minimal Diffraction Cuts
Several important features can be noted with reference to
One extremely important implicationof the parabolic diffrac- Fig. 15. Diffraction loss goes t o 0 for those materials having
7 = - 1 .O and, as expected, the combined losscurveagrees
tiontheory is that since itreduces totheisotropictheory
A-

SLOBODNIK: SAW MATERIALS

5 89

BEAU
STEERING
LL

0.4
0 BEAUSTEERING

;0.2
v)

rrJ
0
-I

0.I
-1.5

-1.0

-0.5

t 0.5

-1
0

-1.5

'

d+/d8

Fig. 15. Loss due to diffraction and beam steeringp a function of slope
of powerflowangleforparabolicmaterials.
L representswidth of
transducerinwavelengths,
2 thedistancebetween
transducersin
wavelengths, and BS Q the beam steering angle (defined
as misalignment of centerlinebetweentransducersfromdesiredpure-mode
axis).

exactlywiththe
beamsteeringlosscurve.Thosematerials
having 7 = 0 correspond to locally isotropic casesandbeam
steeringgoes to 0. Here,diffractionaccountsforthetotal
loss. Diffraction loss alone is symmetric about 7 = - 1.O and
beam steering loss about 7 = 0, while the combined curve is
clearly nonsymmetric. Universal beam steering plus diffraction
loss curves are not possible.
The results illustrated in Fig. 15 are of major importance in
choosing a material for a particular application. For example,
where diffraction is potentially a very serious problem, as in
highlyapodized fzlters, amaterialhaving
7 - 1.0 wouldbe
most desirable.
Fig. 16 illustrates [ 351 combined beam steering andAdiffraction loss versus the time-delay-frequencyparameter Z. It is
of interest to point out that the loss is very h g h for the .?=
75 000 curvenear 7 = - 1.0. Forthis largedistancebeam
steering is very important, especially for narrow undiffracted
beams, and some beam spreading is to be desired. (The same
is trueAifinaccurate X-ray orientationmust be tolerated.)
Since Z is proportional to frequency (for fixed time delay),
Fig. 16 also illustrates why beam steering and diffraction are
consideredUHFandmicrowavefrequencydesignproblems.
Significantlossesandmaterialtradeoffconsiderationsexist
at the higherfrequenciesand, of course, also for verylong
time delays.
SA W Filter Synthesis in the Presence o f Diffraction
Since an interdigital transducer can be made to be an excellent transversal filter,
Fourier-transform-pair
and
digital
filter [361 design procedures can beused to synthesize SAW
filterfrequencyresponses;atleastthis
is trueintheory.
Unfortunately,finger overlap apodizationresults in diffraction variations which destroy the Fourier transform relation

-0 5

-I 0

0
i

-.

+os

Fig. 16. Lossdue to diffractionand beam steering as afunctionof

slopeofpoyer
flow anglewithdistance
in wavelengthsbetween
transducers, 2 as parameter.

between the envelope of the finger overlap function and the

A directsynthesismethod
[37]
device frequencyresponse.
forcorrectingforthesediffractioneffectsbymodification
of the original apodization is reviewedhere
forperiodic
transducers.
The signal amplitude transferre2 to an electrical load from
anacousticaperture
of width L irradiatedbyanacoustic
beam of complex amplitude A ( x ) has been given by Waldron
I381 as
A ( x ) d x.

HeLe x is the direction perpendicular to the acoustic beam and

T ( L ) is defined in the following manner [ 3 8 ] . Th,e amplitude
of the electrical signal delivered 10the load is T ( L ) times the
amplitude of an acoustic beam L-wide of constant amplitude
and phase and centered on the transducer at normal incidence.
Undertheconditionsfor
whichaninterdigitaltransducer
can be directly repre%ented as a transversal filter, it has been
In
shown [ 191 that T ( L ) is directlyproportionalto
other words,

a.

T(2j = c dE
where C depends on other physicalandgeometricalAparameters of the delay line [ 191 but is independent of L. This
is an important result as it means that the C associated with
a given individualfingerpairin
a2 apodized.transducer is
independent of the finger overlap LN and, therefore, is the
same for all gaps (for periodic transducers).
Equation (35) can thus be rewritten as

i12
S= C

Ji12

A (x) dx

which forms thebasis of the following development.

(37)

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MAY 1976

590

INPUT

of (41), which is obtained by squaring the magnitude of both

sides of (40), dividingb%th numeratoranddemoninator
of
the righthandsideby
L i / A(O)(', rearr2nging termsand
multiplying numerator and denominator by L o th, and finally
by taking logarithms and recognizing that one term represe%ts
diffraction loss between two :qual transducers of width L O
and separated by a distance ofZo.

OUTPUT

?.

7=n F
Fig. 17. Illustration of apodized(right)andunapodized(left)interdigital transducers with definition of terms used in diffraction correction derivations.

{Diffraction loss in dB for two equal

Consideranacousticsurface
wave delaylinehavingone
apodizedtransducerandoneuniformlaunchingaperture
as
illustrated in Fig. 17. Under the condition of no difhcction,
the voltahge across the load due to the Nth finger pair having
overlap L N , with respect to the voltFe across the load due to
the widest finger pair having overlapL o is, from (37)

iN/2

A ( 0 )dx

-iN/2

= -E N ,

ideal case forno diffraction.

2 0

A ( 0 )dx

(38)

-io/2

Note that each finger pair is treated separately and superposition used to generate the total result.
In order to synthesize the desired frequency response in the
presence of diffraction it is necessary to achieve this same
ratio, i.e.,

must be set equal to (38)

In these equations, Lb is the unknown aperture in the presence of diffraction of theNth finger pair. It is locateda
distance of ?b fromthelaunchingaperture
asimpliedin
Fig. 17.Forthepresent
analysis, we havearbitrarilyset
the widestoverlap
(Eo) inthe presence of diffraction to
be equal to tHe widest overlap if no diffraction were present
and,inaddition,
have taken it to belocatedadistance
of
20 from the launching transducer.
Since (40) is complex it actually represents
two equations
f& and 2&, thecorrectedapertureand
intwounknowns
distance, respectively, of the Nth fiiger pair in the presence
of diffraction. In theory then, the problem issolved. However,
in pra2ice an approximation is moreconvenient [ 391.Set
2h = ZN and solve for LA Nt using a computer iterative solution
h

2, transducers}.

(41)

Onceamplitudecorrection is achievedasdescribedabove,
phase correction is oitained where necessary [ 391 by analyzing
the new filter with Lh placed at 2~ to determine the relative
phase, {(N), at each finger pair. Then by setting

a good approximation to phase correction results[ 391.

Thus far we haveconsideredcontributions to SAW device
insertion loss arising from both transducer and wave propagationeffects.Another
lossmechanismwhichmust
oftenbe
considered in the choice of substrate material is that of bulk
or other spurious mode generation. This subject
is treated in
detail [40] elsewhere in this issue.

APPLICATIONS
OF MATERIAL DESIGNDATA
Optimum Transducer Design

Assume thatanoptimum,
i.e., minimuminsertionloss,
periodicunapodized
SAW delay line havingonlyasingle
tuning inductor (see Fig. 8) is t o be designed and fabricated.
Afterconsideration of velocity,couplingconstant,temperature coefficient, and loss factors; ST quartz is chosen as the
substrate.
After this choice the number
of interdigital periods N and
the optimum acoustic aperture must be determined.
In practical
design situations dealingwithlosses
and real elements,and
particularlywherebandwidth
is alsoa
consideration,the
choices of these parameters are interdependent. Thus optimum
apertures should be determined for severalvalues of N and
theabsoluteoptimumfinallychosen.Areasonablestarting
value for N is [ 181

n
N>= (43)
4k2
Once N is fixed, the best value of acoustic aperture depends
on transducer and tuning element
losses, parasiticelements,
and beam steering and diffractionlosses.
Inordertominimize
beamsteeringanddiffractionlosses
it is necessary to use the widestpossibleacoustic
aperture.
Unfortunately,electricalmatchingconsiderationslimitthe
extent to which increased finger overlap can be used to reduce
overall device insertion loss. To demonstrate this effect and to
develop optimum delay line design procedures, let us investigatetransducerinsertion
loss as afunction of thevarious
design parameters, particularly acoustic aperture.
Neglecting propagationeffects,insertion lossversus L can
be directly determined using (2 1). Curve 3 in Fig. 18 illustrates
of
this basic informationfor ST quartzandaspecificset
h

SLOBODNIK: SAW MATERIALS

591

40

1 I l : I

= 6600
B S 4 : o I.
cE= 0 I pF

INCLUDING
ATTENUATION
LOSS,BEAM
STEERING, AND

vr

VI

INCLUDING
ATTENUATION

00

eo

40

l l ! l

70

100

200

300

(WAVELENGTHS)

Fig. 1 8 . Delay line insertion loss versus acoustic aperture curves used to choose optimum (minimum insertion loss) acoustic aperture. Curve 1 includes real transducer effects (Q = 30, p / t = 0.345 f l p , and CE = 0.1 pF), attenuation loss, beam steering, and diffraction. Curve 2 includes real
transducer effects and attenuation loss. Curve 3 includes only transducer effects. Curve 4 is the ideal case corresponding t o Q = -, p/r = 0 , and
CE = 0 with zero propagation, beam steering, and diffraction losses.

a.

592

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE. MAY 1976

J. 6.00

3p0.00

3F.00

3,lO.OO

3!5.00

3FO.JO

~ 2 ~ R ~ ~ U E , N ! C o l b 0 n H 2 3 3 5 ~ 3!0.W
00

3?6.00

3S0.00

3SS.00

360.00

91

5.00

Fig. 2 0 . Insertion loss versus frequency characteristics of a SAW filter illustrating how mass loading can cause filter distortion and the ability
double electrodes tosuppress these effects.

realistic parameters [35] . Inaddition to thoseparameters

listed in Fig. 18the following values corresponding to ST
quartz at fo = 660 MHz were used: N = 20;inductor Q = 30;
timedelay = 10 ps; sheet resistivity [ 4 i ] p / t = 0.345 Q/O,
yielding [21] a valueof R, = 4.6 Q at L = 100; unity finger
to gap ratio andrelative diel5ctric constant & = 4.55, yielding
a value ofCT = 0.48 pF at L = 100;k' = 0.0016; and surface-

of

wave velocity us = 3 158 m/s. The value of the tuning inductor

was varied for each value of L to obtain the lowest value of
insertion loss for that particular aperture.
When propagation loss at 660 MHz is included, the overall
loss increases substantially, but the optimum value of acoustic
aperture yielding minimuminsertionlossremains
thesame.
The final result of our effortsis the top curve of Fig. 18 which

593

SLOBODNIK: SAW MATERIALS

SAW

AND

TABLE 1
INTERDIGITAL TRANSDUCER
DESIGN
D.4~4

z .Y

0. 0504

0.045

4. 6438

0. OS62

0.048

4 . 6 4 3 8 X IO-"

0.0578

0.057

6. 1857

0. 0140

0.015

0. 0169

0.017

0.0054

.....

4.04522 x 1 0 - ' "

0.0121

7,0003

x 10'Io

x 10'Iu

9.3246

x IO""

4.04522

x IO-"

6. 0979

x IO-"

4.04522

6. 0979 X

0.00233

.. ...
.....

0.0007S

IO-'"

4 . 4 305.2030x9 3

0 0. 04. 0. 40637854 2 3

Y.S

7.0003 X

10-l'

x 10-1"

x lo-'

11

4 7 . !I

6. 6859 x IO-''

41. $3

6.6859

x IO-'

3.170.

11. tl117ir

0. 0154

.. . , .

4.4352 x

3159.

0.0009

0.0022

0.0023

5.00664 x IO-''

7.54722

3158.

0.L)OUTrX

0.0014

0.001ti

5.03385 x 10."

7.58824 x IO-'

IO-''

43.

6 . 6 8 5 9 x IO-''

.....

4 . 7 l(i4 x
4.4352

14. (1!119

51

41.9

6.6859 x IO-'"

10-1

Ik
18.5

22.0

)uutz

Note: All quantities are defined in the text. CFF is capacitance per unit length for an IDT period and is twice
that for an IDT finger pair.
*Indicates experimental data.

representstheoptimum
design information. Beam steering
anddiffraction loss have beenincluded.
Overall minimum
insertion loss is obtained using an acoustic aperture ofL = 100
wavelengths. The optimum apertures were determined graphically. as this has been found
t o be the most convenient method
inactualpractice.
A curve fortheideal case corresponding
to the original Stanford design procedure [ 181 is also presented
in Fig. 18 for comparison. Here RL = 0, C , = 0, BS Q = 0,
andattenuationanddiffraction
losses areneglected.The

difference is easily seen. Under certain restrictive assumptions

(including neglecting diffraEtion and parasitic elements),
optimum acoustic apertures L ~ P T
can be determined analytically [ 421 . Examples will be given in the summary table.
The Effectof Coupling Constant on Bandpass Filter Design
Obviously the periodic unapodized delayline described above
is asimplifiedcase.However,many
of the samedecisions
must be made forall SAW devices regardless of their complexity

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, MAY 1976

594

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
or the modelused to predict performance. Material parameters
must
always
be
evaluated
and
tradeoffs
considered.
For
In compiling this survey the author has drawn heavily from
example, insertion loss can be reduced up to a point by using the work of his colleagues atthe Air Force Cambridge Research
material
a
with
increased
coupling
coefficient.
However,
Laboratories. Particular credit must
go to T. L. Szabo, P. H.
distortioncan also result;asshown in Fig. 19 for a cosine- Carr, and A. J. Budreau without whom this paper could never
squared-on-a-pedestal (inthetimedomain)apodized
SAW have been written.
filter. If a particular material must be used for external reasons,
design techniques such as thinning [43] can be used to avoid
REFERENCES
distortion at the expense of spurious frequency responses. It
Lord Rayleigh, On waves propagated along the plane surface of
should be noted that complicating second-order effects have
an elasticsolid, Proc. LondonMath.SOC., vol 17,pp.4-11,
1885.
been suppressed in the examples of Fig. 19 by the use of both
R. M. White and F. W. Voltmer, Direct piezoelectric couplingt o
double electrodes [ 441 , [4S] and dummy electrodes [ 461 .
7 , pp.314-316,
surfaceelastic waves, Appl.Phys.Lett.,vol.
1965.
The reader is referred to the cited literature for information
J.J.Campbelland
W. R.Jones,Amethodforestimating
of design techon these techniques. In fact, a large number
optimalcrystalcutsandpropagationdirectionsforexcitation
of problems.
niqueshaveevolved
to coverawidevariety
ofpiezoelectricsurfacewaves,
IEEE Trans. SonicsUltrason.,
VOI. SU-15, PP. 209-218, Oct. 1968.
Many of thesearediscussedinotherpapersinthis
special
W. R. Jones, J.J. Campbell,and S . L. Veilleux,Theoretical
issue.
analysis of acoustic surface waves, Hughes Aircraft Co., Fullerton,
The Effect of
Mass Loading on Bandpass Filter Design

As a final example of a material parameter which must be

evaluated when arriving at a final design let us consider mass
loading. Mass loadingrefers to that portion of theacoustic
mismatch between a free and electroded surface due to differences in elastic properties rather than the electrical
or Au/v,
mismatch. The latter is, of course, always present when using
aninterdigitaltransducerandvariesonlyaccording
to the
coupling coefficient. Mass loading, on the other hand, varies
widely among material substrates and the type of metal used
for the transducer electrodes. Quantitatively, a revised Av/v,
can be computed which includes mass loading. First define
- 1
-u-O a - u rk DELTA
u,

where ut istheperturbedvelocityincludingbothelectrical
and mass loading effects.
Following thenotation of Penunuriand Lakin1471
using a strictly MKS system) u can be approximated as
U=CC+B(WT)+A(OT)~

(44)

131

(but

141

(45)

where T is the thickness of theperturbingfilm,

C is the
A and B representbestfits
to
shorted-surfacevelocity,and
calculated mass loading data.
As an example, consider a
1SOO-A thick aluminum film on
ST quartz at 330 MHz. Using the values [47] B = -0.029067
yieldsDELTA = 4.81.Frequency
and A = -0.01333 X
response curves for another cosine-squared-on-a-pedestal filter
using both single and double electrodes are illustratedFig.
in 20.
Notehow massloadingcanresultindistortionwithout
an
accompanying lowering of the insertion loss, and how effectively double electrodes can suppress even the increased mismatch caused by mass loading.

SUMMARY
AND CONCLUSIONS

I121

1191

CA., Final Report F19628-69-0132, 1969, unpublished.

H. F. Tiersten,Thicknessvibrationsofpiezoelectricplates,
J. Acoust. SOC. Amer.,vol. 35, pp. 53-58, 1963.
H. Goldstein, Classical Mechanics.
Reading,
MA:
AddisonWesley, 1950.
I. A. Viktorov, Rayleigh and Lamb Waves. New York: Plenum
Press, 1967.
A. J. Slobodnik, Jr., E. D. Conway, and R. T. Delmonico, MicrowaveAcousticsHandbook,
vol. l A , Surface Wave Velocities,
AFCRL, Hanscom AFB,MA 01731, TR-73-0597, unpublished.
J. H. Collins, H. M. Gerard, and H. J. Shaw, High-performance
lithiumniobateacousticsurfacewavetransducersanddelay
lines, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 13, pp. 312-313, 1968.
K. A. Ingebrigtsen,Surfacewavesinpiezoelectrics,
J. Appl.
PhyS., V O ~ .40, pp. 2681-2686.
G. A. Coquin and H. F. Tiersten, Analysis of the excitation and
detection of piezoelectric surface
wavesin quartz by means of
surface electrodes, J. Acoust. SOC. Amer., vol. 41, pp. 921-939,
1967.
P. H.Carr,P. A. DeVito, and T. L. Szabo, The effect of temperature and doppler shift on the performance of elastic surface wave
encoders and decoders,ZEEETrans. Sonics Lntrason.,vol.SU-19,
Pp. 357-367, July 1972.
M. B. Schulz, B. J. Matsinger, and M. G. Holland, Temperature
dependence of surface acoustic
wave velocity on a quartz, J.
Appl. PhyS., VOI. 41, Pp. 1-30, 1970.
A. J. Slobodnik, Jr., The Temperature Coefficients of Acoustic
Surface Wave Velocity and Delay on Lithium Niobate, Lithium
Tantalate,QuartzandTelluriumDioxide,AFCRL,Hanscom
AFB. MA 01 731. unuublished.
A.J:Slobodnik;
Jr:, and E. D. Conway,Newhigh-frequency
hightouplinglow-beam-steeringcutforacousticsurface
waves
on LiNbO, ,Electron. Lett.,vol. 6, pp. 171-172, March 1970.
K. Shibayama, K. Yamanouchi, H. Sato, and T. Meguro, Optimumcutfor
Y-cutLiNbO,crystal
used as thesubstrateof
acoustic-surface-wave filters, this issue, pp. 595-597.
G. R. Barsch and R. E. Newnham, Piezoelectric Materials with
Positive Elastic Constant TemperatureCoefficients,Pennsylvania
State Univ.,UniversityPark,PA
16802,AFCRL-TR-25-0163,
Apr. 1975, unpublished.
W. R. Smith, H. M. Gerard, J. H. Collins, T. M. Reeder, and H. J.
use
Shaw, Analysis of interdigital surface wave transducers by
of an equivalent circuit model, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory
.
Tech.,vol.MTT-17, pp.856-864,Nov.1969.
W. R. Smith, H. M. Gerard,and W. R. Jones,Analysisand
design of dispersive interdigital surface wave transducers,
IEEE
Trans. MicrowaveTheoryTech.,vol.MTT-20,pp.458-471,
July 1972.
R. H. Tancrell andF. Sandy, Analysis of Interdigital Transducers
for Acoustic Surface Wave Devices, Raytheon Research Division,
Waltham, MA, AFCRL-TR-73-0030,1973, unpublished.
H. Gerard, M. Wauk, and R.Weglein,Large
time-bandwidth
product microwave delay line, Hughes Aircraft Co., Fullerton,
CA., Tech. Rep. ECOM-03852, Oct. 1970, unpublished.
G . W. Farnell, I. A. Cermak, P . Silvester, and S. K.Wong Capacitance and field distributions for interdigital surface-wave transducers, IEEE Tmns. Sonics Ultrason., vol. SU-17, pp. 188-195,
July 1970.
M. B. Schulz and J. H. Matsinger, Rayleigh-wave electromechanical coupling constants, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 20, pp. 367-369,

In this paper we have attempted to provide a brief introduction to the natureof surface acoustic waves, and have reviewed
some of the various material design parameters which must be
consideredinorder to obtain optimum
SAW device performance.
A convenient summary of some of the basic data for many of
thepopularsurface
wave orientations isgiven inTable I . 1231
Definitions of each quantity canbe found in the text. It is
1 a79
-,
,.
hopedthissummary
of available information will providea
[ 2 4 ] F. S. Hickernell, Zinc-oxide thin-film surface-wave transducers,
unified source of basic design data as well as alist of references
this issue, pp. 631-635.
[ 2 5 ] L.A. Coldren and H. J. Shaw, Surface-wave long delay lines,
to be consulted whenever additional information is needed.

595

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 64, NO. 5 , MAY 1976

lines, this issue, pp. 598-609.
137)
1261 A. 1. Slobodnik, Jr., P. H. Carr, and A. J. Budreau, Microwave
frequencyacousticsurface-wavelossmechanisms
on LiNbO, ,
J. Appl. Phys., V O ~ .41, pp. 4380-4387, OCt. 1970.
1381
1271 P. J. King and F. W. Sheard, Viscosity tensor approach
to the
damping of Rayleigh waves,
J. Appl. Phys., vol. 40, pp. 5 1895190, Dec. 1969.
1391
[ 2 8 ] A. I. Slobodnik, Jr., Attenuation of microwave acoustic surface
(401
waves due togas loading, J. Appl. Phys.,vol. 43, pp. 2565-2568,
June 1972.
(411
A. J. Budreau, Acoustic surface wave
1291 A. J. Slobodnik, Jr., and
loss mechanisms on Bi,, GeO,, atmicrowavefrequencies,
J.
Appl. Phys., vol. 43, pp. 3278-3283, Aug. 1972.
[ 3 0 ] A. J . Budreau and P. H. Carr, Temperature dependence of the
[42]
attenuationofmicrowavefrequencyelasticsurfacewavesin
quartz, J. Appl. Phys., vol. 18, pp. 239-241, Mar. 1971.
[ 3 1 ] T. L. Szabo and A. J. Slobodnik, Jr., The effect of diffraction
[43]
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Al,

Optimum Cut for Rotated Y-Cut LiNbO3 Crystal

Used as the Substrate of Acoustic-Surface-Wave
Filters
KIM10 SHIBAYAMA, KAZUHIKO YAMANOUCHI, HIROAKI SATO,

Abstract-The existence of a new suppression cut to the most obstructive spurious component consistingof the slower shev wave propagatating in a crystal has been experimentally found out for acousticsurface-wavepropagation on LiNbO3. Theplate is a 127.86 rotated
Ycut X-propagating plate and has a large electromechanical coupling
coefficient.

INTRODUCTION

AND

TOSHIYASU MEGURO

This paper deals mainly with the experimental suppression

of the spurious component through
RF pulseresponsesand
frequency-transmission characteristics of rotated Y-cut plates
cut at several angles near 13 1.

EXPERIMENT

The experiments wereperformedusingaplaterotated

8
from the Y axis about the X axis of a LiNb03 crystal. The
specimens were obtained by cutting
at intervals of about 1
from 8 = 123.60 to 8 = 131.88, and their cut angleswere
measuredexactlybyX-raydiffraction
onthe bases of the
CO, - 1 , 4 ) plane [ 31, which is equal to the 127.86 cut plane.
Each specimen is 24 mm long, 15 mm wide, and about 2 mm
thick. The dimensions of the interdigital aluminum electrodes
with 34 fingersare5.25mm in overlap finger length, 25in
fingerwidth,and25pminfingerspace,andthecenter-tocenter distance between launching and receiving electrodes
is
10 mm. On the reverse side of these specimens, many grooves
Manuscript received November 4, 1975.
The authors are with the Research Institute of Electrical Communica- were cut obliquely to the propagationaxis in order to suppress
the unknown bulk waves reflected from the bottom.
tion, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.

IEZOELECTRIC
substrates
for, acoustic-surface-wave
filtersanddelay
lines with131rotated
Y c u t X-prop[ 11, [ 2 ] are
agatingcrystallinelithiumniobateplates
widelyused.
This is because of theirsuperiorityinelectromechanical coupling to Rayleigh waves and low beam steering
comparedwithothercuts.However,
an unknownspurious
signal generated on the substrate frequently prevents successful experiments. For filters, this leads to phenomena inwhich
the attenuation in the stopband cannot be guaranteed to be
sufficiently large.