Screen-printed ultrasonic 2-D matrix array transducers for microparticle manipulation

This paper reports the development of a two-dimensional thick film lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ultrasonic transducer array, operating at frequency approximately 7.5 MHz, to demonstrate the potential of this fabrication technique for microparticle manipulation. All layers of the array are screen-printed then sintered on an alumina substrate without any subsequent patterning processes. The thickness of the thick film PZT is 139 ± 2 μm, the element pitch of the array is 2.3 mm, and the dimension of each individual PZT element is 2 × 2 mm2 with top electrode 1.7 × 1.7 mm2. The measured relative dielectric constant of the PZT is 2250 ± 100 and the dielectric loss is 0.09 ± 0.005 at 10 kHz. Finite element analysis was used to predict the behaviour of the array and to optimise its configuration. Electrical impedance spectroscopy and laser vibrometry were used to characterise the array experimentally. The measured surface motion of a single element is on the order of tens of nanometres with a 10 Vpeak continuous sinusoidal excitation. Particle manipulation experiments have been demonstrated with the array by manipulating Ø10 μm polystyrene microspheres in degassed water. The simplified array fabrication process and the bulk production capability of screen-printing suggest potential for the commercialisation of multilayer planar resonant devices for ultrasonic particle manipulation.