Research Projects

Quartz crystals, used in timing and frequency control applications in electronic systems for over 100 years, are not compatible with Si/CMOS process technology, preventing monolithic integration and causing a bottleneck in board space. A proposal is to design and fabricate RF oscillators by replacing quartz crystal with other CMOS compatible piezoelectric materials like AlN and ScAlN. A piezo stack (Mo/ AlN or ScAlN /Mo) will be deposited on SOI wafers using either RF sputtering at IIT Madras or fabrication from abroad. The resonator's microstructure will be fabricated at the nanofabrication facility (CNNP) at IIT Madras, and characterized for RF performance metrics like resonant frequency and insertion loss. An amplifier will be designed at IITM and fabricated at an external CMOS foundry. The resonator die will be bonded with the amplifier die to check for oscillating action. This proposal builds on years of experience in making MEMS resonators and aims to advance understanding by using new piezoelectric materials like ScAlN, using high Q structures, and designing better mechanical structures.