Quartz crystal is an important electronic material. When a quartz wafer cut in a certain direction is subjected to mechanical stress, an electric field or charge proportional to the stress will be generated, which is called the positive piezoelectric effect. On the contrary, when the quartz wafer is subjected to an electric field, it will produce a strain proportional to the electric field, which is called the inverse piezoelectric effect. The positive and inverse effects are collectively called the piezoelectric effect. Quartz crystal not only has piezoelectric effect, but also has excellent mechanical, electrical and temperature characteristics. The resonators, oscillators and filters designed and manufactured with it have outstanding advantages in frequency stabilization and frequency selection.

According to different cutting angles, quartz crystals can be divided into different cutting types such as AT-, BT-, CT-, DT-, NT-, GT-, Z-, etc., as shown in the figure below. Different types of quartz crystals have different elastic constants, piezoelectric constants and dielectric constants, which in turn show different oscillation modes and temperature characteristics in the performance of quartz crystal devices.

IntelliSuite software can perform physical-level simulation of different cutting processes such as AT-Cut, BT-Cut, Z-Cut, etc. for quartz crystals, and at the same time, it can simulate the performance of quartz crystal structures or devices with different cutting shapes.

01. Design layout

Design layout files with Blueprint modules

02. Process flow

Design process flow with IntelliFab modules

AT-Cut Quartz Beam Process Flow

BT-Cut Quartz Beam Process Flow

Z-Cut Quartz Beam Process Flow

03. Process simulation

Physical-level process simulation with the FabSim module

AT-Cut Quartz Beam Process Simulation Results

BT-Cut Quartz Beam Process Simulation Results

Z-Cut Quartz Beam Process Simulation Results

04. Model export

Export geometric models from Fabsim

05. Meshing

Mesh the exported geometric model in the MeshManip module

06. Device-level simulation

Take BT-Cut cut quartz double beam structure as an example

Set the analysis type:

Set density as a function of temperature:

To set up a quartz cut:

Set load:

Set up boundary conditions:

07. Analysis results

Natural frequency at 100°C

1st order natural frequency

2nd order natural frequency

3rd order natural frequency

Natural Frequency vs Temperature