Bulk Acoustic Wave Approach To Wideband Radio-Frequency Spectrum Analysis

The need to process the ever increasing number of exotic signals simultaneously, is a major motivation to develop efficient Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) processors. In devices using active input arrays it is important that the phased transducers not only operate over a wideband but also steer the BAWs efficiently over a large angular span. We demonstrate wideband spurious free beam steering of an input transducer array that is fabricated using dielectric well technology. Operation of BAW spectrum analyzers based on active input arrays is modeled, where various issues of importance such as anisotropy and mode conversion are taken into consideration. Acoustic beam profiles are measured via Bragg scattering of focused laser beams. The experiments demonstrate channelization of RF signals in a LiNb03 device and validate our theoretical diffraction model that is based on Huygen's principle.