Surface acoustic wave modes characteristics of CMOS compatible SiO2/AlN/SiO2/Si multilayer structure with embedded electrodes

[Display omitted] •Surface acoustic wave modes characteristics of CMOS compatible SiO2/AlN/SiO2/Si multilayer structure with embedded electrodes is presented.•FEM simulation analysis of the proposed structure (SiO2/AlN/SiO2/Si) is accordingly performed and phase velocities, electromechanical coupling coefficients and temperature coefficient of frequency are simulated as a function of normalized thicknesses of AlN and SiO2 films.•The excited SAW modes are validated with an independently fabricated device by our collaborators i.e. SilTerra Malaysia.•The results showed that there is trade-off between selection of high k2, velocity and nearly zero TCF.•The research results are helpful to design CMOS compatible SAW devices for practical use with high frequency, ultra-wideband, and passive temperature compensation using the proposed structure. In this work, a CMOS compatible surface acoustic wave (SAW) device has been simulated and analyzed on SiO2/AlN/SiO2/Si. The simulation results have been used to characterize a typical fabricated device as well. The phase velocity, coupling coefficient, and temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) of surface acoustic waves in the proposed structure have been investigated using the finite-element (FE) simulation. The simulation results show that a high velocity and a large effective coupling factor can be simultaneously obtained. Besides, the excellent nearly zero TCF is also achieved. The analysis further shows potential for designing high-frequency SAW devices that are CMOS compatible and temperature stable utilizing the Sezawa wave mode.