Fabrication and characterization of piezoelectric cantilever for micro transducers

Piezoelectric microcantilever transducers based on lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film have received considerable interest because of their wide potential applications in nanotechnology, biosensors and microelectromechanical systems. However, thin film cracking, device short-circuiting and substrate surface degrading are commonly encountered in PZT microcantilever fabrication using chemical solution deposition (or CSD) and wet etching processes. In this work, through patterning the pyrolyzed PZT thin film by wet etching before post-annealing for crystallization, these problems are successfully eliminated and workable micro cantilever transducers are fabricated with greatly improved yield. This novel fabricating process could make the integration of piezoelectric components into micro-electromechanical systems much easier.