PZT thin films for piezoelectric microactuator applications

The objective of these investigations was the development of a technology for the integration of piezoelectric PZT thin film.,; deposited by chemical solution deposition (CSD) on silicon-based cantilevers for micromirror and microrelay applications. The fabrication process is presented in detail with attention to the PZT thin film. The electrical properties of these thin films have been studied with hysteresis, capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current density-electric field (S-E) measurements. Furthermore, laser interferometry investigations on completed microactuators are depicted. For 390 mum long cantilever structures tip deflections up to 20 mum at an applied voltage of 10 V were measured. The piezoelectric coefficient d(31) was measured to be -12 pC/N. Resonance frequency measurements on a 190 mum long cantilever resulted in a value of 23 kHz. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.