Abstract
Piezoelectric properties of ZnO films were investigated for the first time by means of an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) sputtering system. It is confirmed that this system is capable of depositing a ZnO film with a large specific resistance, a good piezoelectric property and good c-axis orientation on an interdigital transducer (IDT)/glass substrate at a low temperature (less than 200°C) and under low gas pressure (∼10-4 Torr). These ZnO films exhibited excellent surface acoustic wave (SAW) characteristics (insertion losses) and effective electromechanical coupling factors (keff) compared with ZnO films deposited by a conventional RF magnetron sputtering system. Furthermore this ECR sputtering system was capable of depositing a ZnO film capable of driving a Rayleigh SAW of 700 MHz, without heating the substrate (room temperature), while it was impossible to drive such a wave conventionally, using other sputtering systems.