A rod-shaped vibro touch sensor using PZT thin film

We have fabricated a probe sensor. This sensor is for high-precision coordinate measuring machines, surface roughness measuring tools, or scanning probe microscopes (SPM). This sensor consists of a rod vibrating in the axial direction. The longitudinal vibration was excited and also detected by PZT thin film. The PZT thin film was fabricated by a hydrothermal method. The hydrothermal method uses the reaction process in hot and high pressure aqueous solutions. We made 27.8 mm long sensor. Its resonance frequency was 116 kHz. The sensitivity and resolution were evaluated by experiments. We succeeded in oscillating the rod and detecting the contact.