Static/dynamic trade-off performance of PZT thick film micro-actuators

Piezoelectric actuators are widespread in the design of micro/nanorobotic tools and microsystems. Studies toward the integration of such actuators in complex micromechatronic systems require the size reduction of these actuators while retaining a wide range of performance. Two main fabrication processes are currently used for the fabrication of piezoelectric actuators, providing very different behaviors: (i) the use of a bulk lead zirconate titanate (PZT) layer and (ii) the use of thin film growth. In this paper, we propose a trade-off between these two extreme processes and technologies in order to explore the performance of new actuators. This resulted in the design and fabrication of thick film PZT unimorph cantilevers. They allowed a high level of performance, both in the static (displacement) and dynamic (first resonance frequency) regimes, in addition to being small in size. Such cantilever sizes are obtained through the wafer scale bonding and thinning of a PZT plate onto a silicon on insulator wafer. The piezoelectric cantilevers have a 26 mu m thick PZT layer with a 5 mu m thick silicon layer, over a length of 4 mm and a width of 150 mu m. Experimental characterization has shown that the static displacements obtained are in excess of 4.8 mu m V-1 and the resonance frequencies are up to 1103 Hz, which are useful for large displacements and low voltage actuators.