Study of PZT coated membrane structures for micromachined ultrasonic transducers [medical imaging]

Test structures for piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers have been fabricated and investigated. The basic element consists of a silicon membrane coated with a [100] textured Pb(ZrTi)O/sub 3/ (PZT) thin film deposited by sol-gel techniques. Dense and [100]-textured PZT films are obtained up to a thickness of 4 /spl mu/m. Cantilever and membrane test structures were simulated by finite element analysis (FEA). Characteristic material properties have been derived comparing experimental and simulation results. The findings are used to optimize a transducer design for medical imaging in the range of 5 MHz.