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  4. AlScN Thin Films for the Piezoelectric Transduction of Suspended Microchannel Resonators
 
research article

AlScN Thin Films for the Piezoelectric Transduction of Suspended Microchannel Resonators

Abdelaal, Yara  
•
Liffredo, Marco  
•
Villanueva, Luis Guillermo  
August 31, 2025
Sensors

Suspended microchannel resonators (SMRs) are powerful tools for mass, density, and viscosity sensing. Among various transduction methods, full piezoelectric transduction offers key advantages, including on-chip integration, low energy dissipation, and linear response. This work explores sub-200 nm Al0.6Sc0.4N thin films for SMR transduction, benchmarking them against their well-established AlN predecessor. By integrating the piezoelectric stack into low-stress silicon nitride (ls-SiNx) beam resonators, we investigate the impact of bottom electrode design, photoresist removal prior to deposition, and deposition bias on film quality. Characterization includes X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), d31 piezoelectric coefficient, relative dielectric permittivity, and breakdown field measurements. Results illustrate the impacts of the studied parameters and demonstrate a fourfold increase in d31, compared to AlN, confirming the strong potential of Al0.6Sc0.4N for high-performance SMR transduction.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.3390/s25175370
Author(s)
Abdelaal, Yara  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Liffredo, Marco  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Villanueva, Luis Guillermo  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Date Issued

2025-08-31

Publisher

MDPI AG

Published in
Sensors
Volume

25

Issue

17

Start page

5370

Subjects

suspended microchannel resonator

•

piezoelectric transduction

•

thin film characterization

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
NEMS  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF

PP00P2_170590,200020_184935

Available on Infoscience
September 8, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/253841
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