Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Acoustic Delay Line Oscillators

Conference paper (2020)

Authors

Ming Huang Li National Tsing Hua University, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Ruochen Lu University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
T. Manzaneque Garcia Dynamics of Micro and Nano Systems - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
Songbin Gong University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Research Group
Dynamics of Micro and Nano Systems (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2020 Ming Huang Li, Ruochen Lu, T. Manzaneque Garcia, Songbin Gong
DOI
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https://doi.org/10.1109/MEMS46641.2020.9056259
MEMS Oscillator Phase noise Lithium niobate Piezoelectric transducers Acoustic delay lines
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Published Date

2020

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Precision and Microsystems Engineering

Research Group

Dynamics of Micro and Nano Systems

Abstract

In this work, thin-film lithium niobate (LiNbO3) acoustic delay line (ADL) based oscillators are experimentally investigated for the first time for the application of single-mode oscillators and frequency comb generation. The design space for the ADL-based oscillator is first analyzed, illustrating that the key to low phase noise lies in high center frequency (fo), large delay (τ G), and low insertion loss (IL) of the delay. Therefore, two self-sustained oscillators employing low noise amplifiers (LNA) and a low IL, long delay (fo=157MHz, IL =2.9dB, τG= 200-440ns) SH0 mode ADLs are designed for a case study. The two SH0 ADL oscillators show measured phase noise of -109 dBc/Hz and -127 dBc/Hz at 10-kHz offset while consuming 16 mA and 48 mA supply currents, respectively. Although the carrier power of the proposed oscillator is lower than published state-of-the-art ADL oscillators, competitive phase noise performance is still attained thanks to the low IL. Finally, frequency comb generation is also demonstrated with the same delay line and a commercial RF feedback amplifier, showing a comb spacing of 3.4 MHz that matches the open-loop characterization.