Integration of optoelectronics and SAW technology

The number of radio frequency surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters produced presently exceeds 3 billion per year. The demand for high-frequency SAW filters for telecommunications and remote sensing, has led to extensive research, focusing on new SAW microdevices. SAW devices have shown compact structures, small size, low cost, high sensitivity and fast response. The need of miniaturized systems, with high sensitivity and low energy has motivated the need to integrate on the same substrate all the structure of SAW device and connecting electronic circuits. As a consequence, many types of methods of both constructive and operating characterization of SAW devices have been developed. This paper provides a short introduction regarding the developed level of SAW microdevices and describes the results of literature investigation research of optoelectronic techniques for constructive characterization of SAW microdevices. Further research will be done into the determination of SAW parameters such as the amplitude of surface wave, the velocity of wave propagation on the surface of the piezoelectric substrate. Substrates of quartz, lithium tantalite (LiTaO3) and lithium niobate (LiNbO3), are piezoelectric materials commonly used in manufacturing of SAW devices, but these materials are not compatible with the integrated circuit (IC) technology. Three optoelectronic measurement techniques are known for detection of surface acoustic waves: diffraction grating technique, the knife-edge technique, and the detection of ultrasonic vibrations using optical interferometry. The research work given in this paper concentrates on describing of optoelectronic techniques used for constructive characterization of SAW microdevices. Finally, we try to draw some conclusion where: optoelectronic techniques are predicted to be one of the fundamental measurement methods for measurement of future SAW microdevices.