Al-Mo thin films were fabricated using combinatorial sputtering system to realize highly sensitive surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. The Al-Mo sample library was grown with various chemical compositions and electrical resistivities, which provided important information for selecting the most suitable materials for SAW devices. As the SAWs generated from piezoelectric materials are significantly affected by the resistivity and density of the interdigital transducer (IDT) electrodes, three types of Al-Mo thin films with different Al contents were fabricated. The thickness of the Al-Mo thin film used in the SAW-IDT electrode was fixed at 150 nm. As the Al content of the Al-Mo thin film decreased from 81.2 to 30.3 at%, the resistivity decreased slightly from 5.43±0.15 to 4.87±0.1×10-5 Ω-cm, whereas the calculated density increased significantly from 4.1 to 7.9 g/㎤. The SAW device composed of Al-Mo IDT electrodes resonated at 143 MHz without frequency shifts; however, the selectivity of the resonant frequency and insertion loss deteriorated as the Al content decreased. This suggest that the resonant characteristics of the SAW devices fabricated with Al-Mo thin films were more strongly influenced by the material density rather than the electrical properties of the IDT electrodes.
