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Micromachined ultrasonic transducers based on lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films

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Abstract

The design, fabrication and measuring of piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (pMUTs), including the deposition and patterning of PZT films, was investigated. The (100) preferential orientation of PZT film have been deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si (100) substrates by modified sol–gel method. PZT film and Pt/Ti electrode were patterned by novel lift-off using ZnO as a sacrificial layer avoiding shortcomings of dry and wet etching methods. pMUT elements have been fabricated by an improved silicon micromachining process and their properties were also characterized. As measured results, the pMUT tends to operate in a standard plate-mode. The receive sensitivity and transmit sensitivity of pMUT element whose active area only has 0.25 mm2 are −218 dB (ref. 1 V/μPa) and 139 dB (ref. 1 μPa/V), respectively.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Nos. 11074274 and 11174319. The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Professor Houqing Zhu in measurement and Mr. Jianhui Wei in MEMS technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, People’s Republic of China

    Junhong Li, Chenghao Wang, Jun Ma & Mengwei Liu

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  1. Junhong Li
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  2. Chenghao Wang
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  3. Jun Ma
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  4. Mengwei Liu
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Correspondence to Junhong Li.

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Li, J., Wang, C., Ma, J. et al. Micromachined ultrasonic transducers based on lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films. Microsyst Technol 19, 211–218 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-012-1719-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-012-1719-2

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