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MEAM Seminar: “Aluminum Scandium Nitride Microdevices for Next Generation Nonvolatile Memory and Microelectromechanical Systems”

September 29, 2020 at 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Details
Date: September 29, 2020
Time: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Event Category: Seminar
  • Event Tags:,
  • Organizer
    Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics
    Phone: 215-746-1818
    Venue
    Zoom – Email MEAM for Link peterlit@seas.upenn.edu

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    Aluminum Nitride (AlN) is a well-established thin film piezoelectric material. AlN bulk acoustic wave (BAW) radio frequency (RF) filters were one of the key innovations that enabled the 3G and 4G smart phone revolution. Recently, the substitutional doping of scandium (Sc) for aluminum (Al) to form aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN) has been studied to significantly enhance the piezoelectric properties and to introduce ferroelectric properties into AlN based material systems. The properties achieved have profound implications for the performance of future 5G and 6G RF filters, piezoelectric sensors, piezoelectric energy harvesters, and for scaling the bit density of ferroelectric nonvolatile memories. This talk will present on the synthesis of highly Sc doped AlScN materials of the thickness and quality needed for applications in memory and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The material properties achieved will be reported and placed in the context of device specific figures-of-merit and competing material systems. Ferroelectric and electromechanical devices that utilize the unique properties of AlScN to achieve state-of-the-art (SOA) performance will be shown.