Fabrication and Characterization of PZT Thick Films for Sensing and Actuation.docVIP

Sensors 2007, 7, 493-507 sensors ISSN 1424-8220 ? 2007 by MDPI /sensors Full Research Paper Fabrication and Characterization of PZT Thick Films for Sensing and Actuation Ling-Sheng Jang 12* and Kuo-Ching Kuo 2 1 Department of Electrical Engineering and Center for Micro/Nano Science and Technology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 710, Taiwan 2 Institute of Nanotechnology and Microsystem Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 710, Taiwan; E-mail: oak9137852654@.tw * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-mail: lsjang@.tw Received: 16 February 2007 / Accepted: 4 April 2007 / Published: 18 April 2007 Abstract: Lead Zirconate Titanate oxide (PZT) thick films with thicknesses of up to 10 μm were developed using a modified sol-gel technique. Usually, the film thickness is less than 1 μm by conventional sol-gel processing, while the electrical charge accumulation which reveals the direct effect of piezoelectricity is proportional to the film thickness and therefore restricted. Two approaches were adopted to conventional sol-gel processing – precursor concentration modulation and rapid thermal annealing. A 10 μm thick film was successfully fabricated by coating 16 times via this technique. The thickness of each coating layer was about 0.6 μm and the morphology of the film was dense with a crack-free area as large as 16 mm2. In addition, the structure, surface morphology and physical properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) and electrical performance. The dielectric constant and hysteresis loops were measured as electric characteristics. This study investigates the actuation and sensing performance of the vibrating structures with the piezoelectric thick film. The actuation tests demonstrated that a 4 mm x 4 mm x 6.5 μm PZT film drove a 40 mm x 7 mm x 0.5 mm silicon beam as an ac