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 a 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.