Enhanced Properties of Aerosol Jet Printed PZT: Towards Realizing Flexible Automotive Sensors

A photonic sintering method was presented by using repetitive high-intensity sub-msec flash pulses of an Aerosol Jet printed Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) nano-ink to achieve high-quality sintered devices. The rapid processing time eliminates the formation of the pyrochlore phase and oxidation of the substrate, and it results in enhanced piezoelectric properties compared with the same material following conventional thermal sintering. The short pulse duration and associated low-temperature increase in the substrate enable photonic sintering of PZT directly on commonly used metal electrodes. This process eliminates the need for an oxygen-free sintering environment to prevent oxidation, and avoids the need to pursue complex film-transfer techniques that are conventionally employed due to substrate temperature incompatibility. The presented process allows the realization of high performance fully printed flexible piezoelectric sensors on temperature sensitive substrates for several applications including automotive sensors.