Complex oxides for Electronics

Centrum Partners:

• Ilia Katardjiev, Sören Berg and Karin Larsson (Uppsala)
• Ulf Helmersson (Linköping)

External Partners:

• Claes-Göran Granqvist (Uppsala University)

Scientific Objectives

• Synthesis of AlBN, NKN, PZT and WO3 and studies of their properties. In the case of WO3, chemical sensors will be fabricated using existing AlN based resonators.

Technology Transfer Objectives

• EU project - Biognosis
• Cooperation: Biosensor Applications, Attana, Radi Medical Systems, Ericsson, Philips

Research plan:

Stage 1. Synthesis of high quality ferroelectric thin films

The rapid development of the thin film electroacoustic technology in recent years ne-cessitates the synthesis of novel materials with a range of electroacoustic properties. Of great interest is ferroelectric materials with low dielectric and acoustic losses, high pie-zoelectric coefficient and tunability of at least 10%. Examples of promising materials are AlBN, NaKNbO3, BaSrTiO3, PZT, etc. These will be grown by PLD, sol gel and PVD. The films will be characterized electroacoustically and process parameters opti-mized. The work also envisages the synthesis of highly porous nanoparticle films of WO3 for gas sensing.

Stage 2. Development of gas and biochemical sensors with extreme sensitivities

The films thus developed in stage 1 will be used for the design and fabrication of chemical and biochemical sensors with a resolution exceeding substantially the existing QCM sensors. A variety of acoustic modes (thickness excited longitudinal and shear, symmetric and asymteric Lamb wave, etc) will be utilized for this purpose. Joint experimental/theoretical efforts will be made in investigating the prerequisites for optimal surface modifications and functionalisations.

Stage 3. Fabrication of tunable low cost resonators, filters and oscillators

The explosive development of wireless communications requires the development of high performance, high frequency, low loss and low cost tunable components and devices. A variety of tunable resonators, filters, delay lines, oscillators, etc will be designed and fabricated in this subproject.