Microstructural and electrical properties of nanostructured lead zirconate titanate composite thick films processed for MEMS applications via hybrid sol–gel approach

Abstract

An alternative chemical solution processing version of thick and crack free PZT films was developed. PZT films were equally deposited from pure sol and composite suspension on ITO-coated corning glass substrates by dip-coating process and were sintered at various temperatures. The PZT composite sol–gel suspension/slurry was optimized to dip-coating to form thick films with nearly constant thickness and limited cracking. The XRD spectra indicate that the 0–3 ceramic/ceramic composites films possess single-phase perovskite type. SEM micrographs of thick film cross-sections displayed composite structures with no observable boundary between layers. The optimized PZT layer revealed a capacitance resultant to a permitivity of Ɛr = 1282 and tang(δ) = 0.17 at 100 Hz. The remnant polarization, and coercive field for the same sample estimated from the ferroelectric P–E hysteresis loop were 30 μC cm−2, and 17 kV cm−1, respectively. The ferroelectric and dielectric constant values were equivalent to those reported for bulk material.