An acoustic wave device can have a plurality of coupling portions configured to electrically couple electrodes of the device to the substrate of the device to provide a bypass current pathway through the substrate for heat management. The substrate can be a semiconductor material, which can become more conductive as the temperature increases so that the bypass current pathway diverts more power through the substrate as the temperature increases. The acoustic wave device can be a surface acoustic wave device, which can have an interdigital transducer electrode that has the coupling portions on each of the bus bars and extending through the piezoelectric layer to contact the substrate. The acoustic wave device can be a bulk acoustic wave device in some implementations.