Electrode design for multimode suppression of aluminum nitride tuning fork resonators

This paper is focused on electrode design for piezoelectric tuning fork resonators. The relationship between the performance and electrode pattern of aluminum nitride piezoelectric tuning fork resonators vibrating in the in-plane flexural mode is investigated based on a set of resonators with different electrode lengths, widths, and ratios. Experimental and simulation results show that the electrode design impacts greatly the multimode effect induced from torsional modes but has little influence on other loss mechanisms. Optimizing the electrode design suppresses the torsional mode successfully, thereby increasing the ratio of impedance at parallel and series resonant frequencies (Rp/Rs) by more than 80% and achieving a quality factor (Q) of 7753, an effective electromechanical coupling coefficient (kteff2) of 0.066%, and an impedance at series resonant frequency (Rm) of 23.6 kΩ. The proposed approach shows great potential for high-performance piezoelectric resonators, which are likely to be fundamental building blocks for sensors with high sensitivity and low noise and power consumption.