Epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O ₃ thin films for a MEMS application

This research presents the deposition and device fabrication of epitaxial Pb ( Zr,Ti ) O 3 (PZT) thin films for applications in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). A piezoelectric micro-membrane is described as an example. Using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique and the MEMS microfabrication process, the piezo-membranes with diameters ranging from 200 to 500 μ m were obtained. The displacement of piezo-membranes increased from 5.1 to 17.5 nm V −1 with a piezoelectric-membrane diameter in the range of 200–500 μ m . Furthermore, the effect of PZT film-thickness on the mechanical properties has been investigated. By using the conductive-oxide SrRuO 3 (SRO) layers as the electrodes, the degradation of both ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties is prevented up to 10 10 switching cycles.