Piezoelectric ceramic thick films deposited on silicon substrates by screen printing

Abstract

Screen-printing processes offer advantages in producing directly patterned and integrated piezoelectric elements, and fill an important technological gap between thin film and bulk ceramics. However, several existing problems in the screen-printed piezoelectric thick films, such as the poor reliability and the required high sintering temperature, are significantly limiting their applications. In this work, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic films of 30 μm in thickness were deposited on Pt-coated silicon substrates by the screen-printing process, in which the ceramic pastes were prepared through a chemical liquid-phase doping approach. Porous thick films with good adhesion were formed on the substrates at a temperature of 925°C. Stable out-of-plane piezoelectric vibration of the thick films was observed with a laser scanning vibrometer (LSV), and the piezoelectric dilatation magnitude was determined accordingly. Our piezoelectric measurements through the areal displacement detection with LSV exhibited distinct advantages for piezoelectric film characterization, including high reliability, high efficiency, and comprehensive information. The longitudinal piezoelectric coefficients of the thick films were calculated from the measured dilatation data through a numerical simulation. High piezoelectric voltage constants were obtained due to the very low dielectric constant of the porous thick films. The application potentials of our screen-printed thick films as integrated piezoelectric sensors are discussed.