The Delay Line SAW Oscillator

Theory of SAW Delay Line

The prime frequency and stabilty determing element of the delay line SAW oscillator is the acoustic delay line. The fourier transform method of determing the frequency response of interdigital transduceders is presently the most widely used and accepted. However, the IDT is a digitally-oriented device as the name implies since each period of an acoustic sinsoid is represented by two consecutive fingers on the transducer. Because of this digital representation, a form of analysis used in digital systems known as the Z-transform will be used to analyze the SAW delay line. The application of the Z-transform method to SAW analysis was derived by Dr. V.M. Ristic of the University of Toronto. The array of lines shown in figure below represent the fingers of a SAW transducer equally spaced a distance d apart.

Array of Line Sources Representing a SAW Transducer

The transfer function of this array using the one-sided Z-transform can be expressed as:

The ap are the weighting coefficients which in terms of a SAW transducer would represent the apodization coefficients. is the phase difference between consecutive fingers in radians while d is the distance in meters between fingers. If the length of the fingers is many times greater than the wavelength of the frequency being considered, then the acoustic propagation can be considered dispersionless, in which case the wave vector k is equal to:

In the case of a uniform interdigital transducer used in SAW delay lines, the finger are all the same length and therefore the sum becomes: ( )

G is a constant and will be set to 1 for convenience since it does not alter the frequency response. ( )

Substituting for z, we get: ( )

( ) ( )

This equation gives the response of the array at an observation point M and the phase term is derived from the phase centre of the array,
( )

Since a delay line also involves an output transducer, the inverse problem of calculating the response induced in an

Design of SAW Delay Line

Substrate Considerations
The two most commonly used substrate materials for SAW devices are lithium niobate (LiNbO3) and ST-X quartz. LiNbO3 materials exhibit a higher temperature coefficeint and a higher surface wave velocity. The major difference between the two is in the coupling coefficient k, which is the measure of

the efficiency by which electrical energy can be converted into mechanical energy on a piezo electric surface. The coupling coefficient can be expressed in terms of the material properties ( dieectric constants; and Va/Va, the fractional change in SAW velocity when a thin, massless conductor is

deposited on the surface.):

Material

Orientation

Va m/s

Va/Va

k2 (measured)

Temperature Coeff. of Delay ppm/oC

85 67 -24 0

CFF in F/m for d/L=0.5

4.6438 x 10-10 6.1857 x 10-10 5.0066 x 10-11 5.03385 x 10-11

Attenuation at 1 GHz dB/sec in Air

0.88 0.75 2.15 2.62 50.2 67.2 4.52 4.55

LiNbO3 LiNbO3 Quartz Quartz

Y,Z 41.5oC Y,X ST,X (Y+42 3/4o, X)

3488 4000 3159 3153

0.0241 0.028 0.009 0.0006

0.045 0.057 0.0023 0.0016

In particular, the ST-quartz crystal is the more suitable choice for temperature stability since it has a first-order temperature coefficient of 0 ppm/oC and a second order coefficient of 31.5 x 10-9 ppm/oC. LiNbO3 was the substrate chosen because it simplied the ciruit complexity since only a single amplifer was used.

Design of the Stepped-finger IDT structure

Introduction Theory of the Stepped Finger Delay Line Waves launched from a unifrom transducer, such as the 2-finger transducer, have the same phase angle along its length. The stepped-finger transducer has its fingers divided into segaments, each equally displaced from one another. The amount of displacement is a fraction of the fundamental wavelength, o/h. The phase difference between the adjacent sgments on one finger will be 2M/h where M is