Cryogenic Characterization of SAW Resonators

In this paper the authors report about the RF characterization of surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators down to cryogenic temperatures (20 K). The characterization campaign is performed with the dual purpose of evaluating their use as temperature sensors or in low noise electronics. The characterized devices are SAW resonators at 423.2 MHz produced by Murata with TO-39 metal package. The RF characterization is performed by recording the Scattering parameters with an Agilent 8753ES Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) and a connection board developed ad hoc. The recorded parameters show a strong dependence of the resonance frequency values towards temperature.