Fabrication of Lead Zirconate Titanate Thick Films Using a Powder Containing Organic Residue

Crack-free, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films with a thickness range of 20–100 µm were deposited on silicon substrate by aerosol deposition (AD) process using powders containing 1–12 wt % of organic species prepared by sol–gel route. The as-deposited films were annealed at 700 °C for 5 min by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) to improve the electrical properties. No delaminations or cracks were observed in the annealed film, even for a 100-µm-thick film. The organic species was evaporated during the post-annealing process and generated nano-sized pores which seemed to alleviate the residual compressive stress. Furthermore, a high deposition rate of about 3.3 µm/s was achieved on the film area of 5 × 12 mm 2 due to the incorporation of organic residue. The dielectric constant ( ε r ), remnant polarization ( P r ), and piezoelectric coefficient ( d 33 ) of the 20-µm-thick PZT film were 850, 24.0 µC/cm 2 , and 70 pC/N, respectively, after annealing at 700 °C for 5 min.