PZT thin films for piezoelectric microactuator applications

PZT Thin-Film Meso- and Micro Devices

“…In general, typical crack free areas are about 5 mm × 5 mm. Compared with existing results in literature [36][37][38], this improved sol-gel process has increased the film thickness by 600% and the crack-free area by one order of magnitude! The detailed process is described as follows [45].…”

“…Currently, successful research results are primarily for PZT films with thickness less than 1 µm [36][37][38]. Often, these PZT films consist of multiple coatings, with each coating ranging from 15 nm to 100 nm in thickness.…”

“…Often, these PZT films consist of multiple coatings, with each coating ranging from 15 nm to 100 nm in thickness. The corresponding crack-free area is usually about 1 mm 2 [36][37][38]. Hypothetically, one could diligently use 50 coatings to fabricate a PZT film with thickness of 5 µm.…”

“…As shown in [36][37][38], traditional sol-gel process often leads to PZT films with thickness in the range of 15-100 nm per coating and crack-free area of 1 mm 2 . Especially for devices in the meso scale, it is very desirable to have the film thickness greater than 1 µm and the crack-free area exceeding 25 mm 2 , which is a 5 mm by 5 mm square area.…”

“…PZT thin-film actuators have wide applications, such as atomic force microscopes (AFM) [57,58], ultrasonic micromotors [59][60][61][62], one-or two-dimensional scanners [63][64][65], microswitches [66], resonators [67,68], and dual-stage actuators/sliders for next-generation computer hard disk drives [1,18,[69][70]. When PZT thin films are incorporated in a mesoor micro-actuator, there are many design challenges to overcome.…”