Piezoelectric sol-gel composite film fabrication by stencil printing

• Published in: IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control Vol. 62; no. 9; pp. 1686 - 1695
• Main Authors: Kaneko, Tsukasa, Iwata, Kazuki, Kobayashi, Makiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.09.2015; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Acoustics; Dielectric constant; Fabrication; Lead zirconate titanates; Nondestructive testing; Powders; Printing; Signal to noise ratio; Sol gel process; Sprayers; Sprays; Substrates; Transducers
• ISSN: 0885-3010; 1525-8955
• DOI: 10.1109/TUFFC.2014.006870

Piezoelectric films using sol-gel composites could be useful as ultrasonic transducers in various industrial fields. For sol-gel composite film fabrication, the spray coating technique has been used often because of its adaptability for various substrates. However, the spray technique requires multiple spray coating processes and heating processes and this is an issue of concern, especially for on-site fabrication in controlled areas. Stencil printing has been developed to solve this issue because this method can be used to fabricate thick sol-gel composite films with one coating process. In this study, PbTiO 3 (PT)/Pb(Zr,Ti)O 3 (PZT) films, PZT/PZT films, and Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 (BiT)/PZT films were fabricated by stencil printing, and PT/ PZT films were also fabricated using the spray technique. After fabrication, a thermal cycle test was performed for the samples to compare their ultrasonic performance. The sensitivity and signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) of the ultrasonic response of PT/PZT fabricated by stencil printing were equivalent to those of PT/PZT fabricated by the spray technique, and better than those of other samples between room temperature and 300°C. Therefore, PT/PZT films fabricated by stencil printing could be a good candidate for nondestructive testing (NDT) ultrasonic transducers from room temperature to 300°C.