Development and experimental verification of a finite element method for accurate analysis of a surface acoustic wave device

Accurate analysis of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices is highly important due to their use in ever-growing applications in electronics, telecommunication and chemical sensing. In this study, a novel approach for analyzing the SAW devices was developed based on a series of two-dimensional finite element method (FEM) simulations, which has been experimentally verified. It was found that the frequency response of the two SAW device structures, each having slightly different bandwidth and center lobe characteristics, can be successfully obtained utilizing the current density of the electrodes via FEM simulations. The two SAW structures were based on XY Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3) substrates and had two and four electrode finger pairs in both of their interdigital transducers, respectively. Later, SAW devices were fabricated in accordance with the simulated models and their measured frequency responses were found to correlate well with the obtained simulations results. The results indicated that better match between calculated and measured frequency response can be obtained when one of the input electrode finger pairs was set at zero volts and all the current density components were taken into account when calculating the frequency response of the simulated SAW device structures.