Power deduction from surface fields in multilayer waveguides

This paper proposes a method to estimate power carried by a propagating Lamb mode in an arbitrary multilayer waveguide from calculated or measured surface displacements. To this end, we calculate the so-called mode power coefficient relating the surface amplitude of the mode to the total power flow toward the lateral direction. The coefficient is given by the gradient of the effective acoustic admittance with respect to the lateral wavenumber, and can be readily calculated by slightly modifying software codes developed for calculating the dispersion relation of Lamb waves. This calculation procedure is simpler and more efficient than the conventional technique based on the estimation of total power flow passing through the waveguide cross section. We apply this technique to the quantitative evaluation of acoustic losses in a thin-film bulk acoustic wave resonator (FBAR), and the effectiveness of this technique is demonstrated.