Characterization of ferroelectric material properties of multifunctional lead zirconate titanate for energy harvesting sensor nodes

We propose a microsystem integration technique that is ideal for low-cost fabrication of vibration energy harvesting sensor nodes. Our approach exploits diverse uses of sol-gel deposited lead zirconate titanate, effectively combining fabrication of several microsystem components into a single process and significantly reducing manufacturing cost and time. Here, we measure and characterize thin film parameters—such as the piezoelectric coefficient e31 (−4.0 C/m2), the dielectric constant εr-eff (219 at 3.3 V), and the total switching polarization (2Pr;52 μC/cm2)—in order to verify this material’s potential for energy harvesting, energy storage, and nonvolatile memory applications simultaneously on the same device.