Patents Examined by Barbara Summons
  • Patent number: 10680576
    Abstract: A piezoelectric thin film resonator includes: a substrate; a lower electrode located on the substrate; a piezoelectric film that has a step on an upper surface thereof and is located on the lower electrode, a film thickness of the piezoelectric film inside the step being greater than a film thickness of the piezoelectric film outside the step; an upper electrode located on the piezoelectric film so that a resonance region is formed, the lower electrode and the upper electrode facing each other across the piezoelectric film in the resonance region, the resonance region including the step in plan view; and an insertion film located in the piezoelectric film, between the piezoelectric film and the lower electrode, or between the piezoelectric film and the upper electrode in at least a part of an outer peripheral region within the resonance region, and not located in a central region of the resonance region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2020
    Assignee: TAIYO YUDEN CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Yokoyama, Jiansong Liu
  • Patent number: 10666226
    Abstract: A ladder-type filter includes: a first piezoelectric thin film resonator including a first lower electrode, a first piezoelectric film, a first upper electrode, and an insertion film inserted between the first lower and upper electrodes, the insertion film being located in an outer peripheral region of a first resonance region; a second piezoelectric thin film resonator including a second lower electrode, a second piezoelectric film, and a second upper electrode, the second piezoelectric thin film resonator having no insertion film between the second lower and upper electrodes in a second resonance region; a series resonator, at least one of the series resonator being a first resonator that is one of the first and second piezoelectric thin film resonators, and a parallel resonator, at least one of the parallel resonator being a second resonator that is another of the first and second piezoelectric thin film resonators.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Assignee: TAIYO YUDEN CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yuki Takahashi, Hiroomi Kaneko, Hiroshi Kawakami, Shinji Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 10659002
    Abstract: An elastic wave device includes a lamination layer film including a piezoelectric thin film on a support substrate. The lamination layer film is not partially present in a region located in an outer side portion of a region where IDT electrodes are provided. A first insulation layer extends from at least a portion of a region where the lamination layer film is not present to an upper portion of the piezoelectric thin film. A wiring electrode has a width of about 6 ?m and extends from the upper portion of the piezoelectric thin film to an upper portion of the first insulation layer, and extends onto a section of the first insulation layer in the region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Koji Yamamoto, Tsutomu Takai, Seiji Kai, Hisashi Yamazaki, Yuji Miwa, Takashi Yamane, Noriyoshi Ota, Atsushi Tanaka
  • Patent number: 10659003
    Abstract: An electronic component includes: a first substrate; a second substrate that includes a functional element formed on a lower surface of the second substrate, the second substrate being mounted on the first substrate so that the functional element faces an upper surface of the first substrate across an air gap; and an insulating film that is located on the upper surface of the first substrate, overlaps with at least a part of the functional element in plan view, faces the functional element across the air gap, and has a film thickness that is more than half of a distance between a lower surface of the functional element and the upper surface of the first substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: TAIYO YUDEN CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hidetaro Nakazawa, Takashi Matsuda
  • Patent number: 10659007
    Abstract: A tunable filter includes a series-arm resonant circuit, and a parallel-arm resonant circuit. The series-arm resonant circuit includes a group of acoustic wave resonant circuits that have different resonant frequencies, a variable capacitor, and switching circuits. The parallel-arm resonant circuit includes another group of acoustic wave resonant circuits that have different resonant frequencies, a variable capacitor, and switching circuits. For example, the difference in pass-band frequency caused by the difference in resonant frequency between the acoustic wave resonant circuit in the group and the acoustic wave resonant circuit in the other group is greater than the maximum difference in pass-band frequency resulting from the variable range of capacitance of the variable capacitor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takaya Wada, Koji Nosaka
  • Patent number: 10659001
    Abstract: An elastic wave device includes a lamination layer film including a piezoelectric thin film on a support substrate. The lamination layer film is not partially present in a region located in an outer side portion of a region where IDT electrodes are provided. A first insulation layer extends from at least a portion of a region where the lamination layer film is not present to an upper portion of the piezoelectric thin film. A wiring electrode extends from the upper portion of the piezoelectric thin film to an upper portion of the first insulation layer, and extends onto a section of the first insulation layer in the region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2020
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Koji Yamamoto, Tsutomu Takai, Seiji Kai, Hisashi Yamazaki, Yuji Miwa, Takashi Yamane
  • Patent number: 10637432
    Abstract: An elastic wave device includes a support substrate, a film stack including a piezoelectric thin film, and an IDT electrode. The film stack is partially absent in a region outside a region where the IDT electrode is located in plan view. The elastic wave device further includes a support layer located on the support substrate in at least a portion of a region where the film stack is partially absent and surrounds a region where the film stack is located in plan view and a cover member located on the support layer. The cover member defines a hollow space facing the IDT electrode together with the piezoelectric thin film and the support layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Seiji Kai
  • Patent number: 10637436
    Abstract: A bulk acoustic wave resonator includes a substrate, a first electrode and a second electrode disposed on the substrate, and a piezoelectric layer disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. At least one of the first electrode and the second electrode includes an alloy of molybdenum and tantalum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tae Kyung Lee, Sung Han, Hwa Sun Lee, Seung Joo Shin, Ran Hee Shin
  • Patent number: 10637435
    Abstract: A bulk acoustic wave resonator includes a substrate; and a resonator including a first electrode, a piezoelectric layer, and a second electrode sequentially disposed on the substrate. Either one or both of the first electrode and the second electrode includes an alloy of molybdenum (Mo) and tantalum (Ta).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tae Kyung Lee, Je Hong Kyoung, Jin Suk Son, Hwa Sun Lee, Ran Hee Shin
  • Patent number: 10630260
    Abstract: An elastic wave apparatus includes a piezoelectric substrate, a first dielectric film provided on the piezoelectric substrate, an IDT electrode provided on the first dielectric film, and a capacitor that includes a pair of comb-shaped electrodes provided directly on the piezoelectric substrate and is electrically connected to the IDT electrode. An elastic wave resonator including the IDT electrode is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Yohei Konaka
  • Patent number: 10622964
    Abstract: An elastic wave device includes a piezoelectric substrate, an IDT electrode on the piezoelectric substrate and including first and second busbars and first and second electrode fingers connected to the first and second busbars, a bump electrode electrically connected to the IDT electrode, a protective film covering the IDT electrode, and a heat-conductive material layer that has an insulating property and that is provided only in a region excluding an excitation region of any IDT electrode and a region located above the bump electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Koichiro Kawasaki
  • Patent number: 10622967
    Abstract: A filter circuit includes a first input node and a second input node for receiving an input signal, and a first output node and a second output node for providing an output signal. A first series acoustic resonator is coupled in series between the first input node and the first output node. At least one coupled resonator filter (CRF) includes first and second transducers, which may be acoustically coupled to one another. The first transducer has a first electrode coupled to the first input node, a second electrode coupled to the second input node, and a first piezoelectric layer between the first electrode and the second electrode. A second transducer has a third electrode coupled to the first output node, a fourth electrode coupled to the second output node, and a second piezoelectric layer between the third electrode and the fourth electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: Qorvo US, Inc.
    Inventors: Nadim Khlat, Robert Aigner
  • Patent number: 10615776
    Abstract: A piezoelectric thin film resonator includes: a substrate; a lower electrode located on the substrate through an air gap; a piezoelectric film located so as to have a resonance region where the lower electrode and an upper electrode face each other across the piezoelectric film and having a lower piezoelectric film and an upper piezoelectric film, in an extraction region where the lower electrode is extracted from the resonance region, a lower end of a first end face of the lower piezoelectric film being substantially aligned with or located further out than an outer periphery of the air gap, a second end face of the upper piezoelectric film being inclined, an upper end of the second end face being substantially aligned with or located further in than the outer periphery, the lower piezoelectric film having a substantially uniform film thickness between the first end face and the second end face.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2020
    Assignee: TAIYO YUDEN CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Mamoru Ishida, Shinji Taniguchi
  • Patent number: 10615771
    Abstract: Examples of the present invention include unreleased coupled multi-cavity resonators and transmission filters. In some examples, the resonators include resonant cavities coupled by acoustic couplers (ABGCs) and acoustic reflectors (ABRs). These acoustic components enable improved confinement of acoustic modes within the resonator to increase the quality factor (Q) and lower the motional resistance (Rx). A coupled resonator with 5 cavities coupled by 4 ABGCs can achieve a Q of 1095 while a single-cavity resonator of the same device size has a Q of 760. In some examples, the devices can be configured to work as electronic transmission filters in at least two types of filter configurations. In the transmission line filter configuration, the device can include a filter structure in an arrangement (LH)N H (LH)N, defined as a Fabry-Perot Resonator (FPR). In the multi-pole filter configuration, the device can include a filter structure in an arrangement similar to the multi-cavity resonator design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2020
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Wentao Wang, Andreja Erbes, Dana Weinstein, Ashwin A. Seshia
  • Patent number: 10608611
    Abstract: A Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonator with an electrically isolated Border (BO) ring is provided. One BAW resonator includes a bottom electrode and a piezoelectric layer over the bottom electrode and having a top surface with a first portion and second portion about the first portion. The BAW resonator also includes a top electrode over the first portion of the piezoelectric layer and a BO ring including a non-conductive portion that is over the second portion of the piezoelectric layer and adjacent to the piezoelectric layer. The BAW resonator may be a Solidly Mounted BAW (SMR-BAW) resonator or a Film BAW Resonator (FBAR). A radio frequency filter including a ladder configuration with the above BAW resonator as a series BAW resonator and methods for fabricating the above BAW resonator are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2020
    Assignee: Qorvo US, Inc.
    Inventors: Alireza Tajic, Paul Stokes
  • Patent number: 10598491
    Abstract: A resonator array comprises substantially paralleled first and second resonant layers having resonating masses. A first set of lateral drive electrodes cause the first resonating mass to vibrate along an axis in a first geometric plane. A second set of lateral drive electrodes cause the second resonating mass to vibrate along an axis in a second geometric plane in an opposite direction of the first resonating mass by about 180 degrees. Rotation in the system causes the masses to vibrate out-of-plane in opposite directions. The opposite vibrational directions of the first and second resonating masses produces a balanced system with small motion in a bonding area between the stacked resonators. As a result, there is minimal propagation of mechanical waves from the balanced system to a substrate resulting in lower anchor loss and a high Q-factor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
    Inventors: Khalil Najafi, Ali Darvishian
  • Patent number: 10601400
    Abstract: A filter including a piezoelectric substrate; a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device on the piezoelectric substrate and including unequally spaced interdigitated input and output transducer electrodes of unequal widths, wherein the input transducer electrodes are to convert an incoming radio frequency (RF) electrical signal into surface acoustic waves; a SAW propagation path between the input and output transducer electrodes; and a magnetostrictive film in the SAW propagation path to filter the surface acoustic waves that are at a ferromagnetic resonance frequency of the magnetostrictive film, wherein the output transducer electrodes are to convert the filtered surface acoustic waves into an outgoing electrical RF signal. The SAW device may operate in a wide-band pass configuration. The wide-band pass configuration result in a transmission of frequencies up to ?60 dB. The magnetostrictive film may include a ferromagnetic material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Inventors: Michael E. McConney, Brandon M. Howe, Piyush Shah, Michael R. Page
  • Patent number: 10601399
    Abstract: In an elastic wave filter apparatus, IDT electrodes and first and second electrode lands are provided on a first main surface of a piezoelectric substrate. The piezoelectric substrate, a supporting layer, and a covering member define a hollow portion. A signal terminal, a ground terminal, and a heat diffusion layer are provided on a second main surface of the piezoelectric substrate. The first and second electrode lands are electrically connected by first and second connection electrodes to the signal terminal and the ground terminal, respectively. The heat diffusion layer is provided at a position where the heat diffusion layer overlaps at least a portion of the IDT electrodes across the piezoelectric substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Koichiro Kawasaki, Taku Kikuchi
  • Patent number: 10587242
    Abstract: An acoustic wave filter includes a substrate, a first resonator disposed on the substrate, a second resonator disposed on the substrate to be spaced apart from the first resonator, a connector electrically connecting the first and second resonators, and a variable capacitor formed in the connector to tune a pass band frequency of the acoustic wave filter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2020
    Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Won Kyu Jeung
  • Patent number: 10581401
    Abstract: A module device includes electrode lands and signal wires on an upper surface defining one main surface of a module substrate. A filter chip is mounted on the module substrate. The filter chip includes first bumps connected to a signal potential, second bumps connected to a ground potential, and a third bump not electrically connected to a functional electrode portion. In a mount region, the third bump which is a floating bump is electrically connected to the signal wire.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Akira Michigami