Lead-Zirconium-Titanium Oxide (PbZr1-xTixO3 or PZT) is a piezoelectric material widely used as sensors and actuators for bulk structures. Advantages of PZT-based devices include high frequency bandwidth, fast response, and high sensitivity. Miniaturization of PZT-based devices will not only perfect many existing products, but also open vast new killer applications, such as miniaturized disposable endoscopes for sensitive tracts and miniaturized hearing aids for patients with sensori-neural hearing loss.
One way to miniaturize PZT devices is to use PZT thin films. Currently, the most promising method to fabricate PZT thin films is to use sol-gel process. Since PZT films and their metal electrodes have significantly different coefficients of thermal expansion, cracks often appear during the sinter phase of the sol-gel process. The presence of cracks also would contribute significantly to aging and reliability of the PZT films.
In this paper, the authors present some experimental evidence of defects in PZT films. Also, the authors have conducted experiments to demonstrate aging phenomenon of PZT thin films.
Back to Micromechanics and Physics of Materials
Back to SES Abstracts
Back to The 41st Annual SES Technical Meeting