Thick Sol-Gel PZT Film integrated in SQI-Based, Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers

Piezoelectric micro machined ultrasonic transducers (pMUT) are piezoelectric laminated plates operating at flexural modes. The pMUT's fabricated in this work contained a 4 mum thick lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film deposited by a sol-gel technique, and exhibiting a permittivity of epsiv_r = 1200, and an effective transverse piezoelectric coefficient e_31,f of 12 C/m² . A further optimization of the sol-gel process yielded larger grain diameters and consequently improved properties: epsiv_r = 1600, e_31,f of 16 C/m² . A design and micromachining concpet for easy scaling in frequency has been developed. The electromechanical coupling coefficient (k² ) and the quality factor (Q) of rectangular clamped elements (with former PZT process) were measured as k² = 4.4% and Q = 145 in air for a low frequency transducer (@240 kHz). The 16.9 MHz transducer yielded values of Q = 25 and k² = 3% in air. The effect of DC bias voltage on frequency and k² has been studied.