Enhancement of AlN Slender Piezoelectric Cantilevers Actuation by PECVD Silicon Nitride Coating

Actuation enhancement for AlN piezoelectric cantilevers is achieved by coating slender AlN beams with a thin PECVD silicon nitride (SiN) layer. Very good linearity and high deflection, up to 19 nm/V of actuation deflection for 200 μm long cantilevers, at quasi-static mode, is obtained for a 500 nm SiN top layer. This value is three times larger than our previously reported value for cantilevers without the SiN layer. The achieved results make these cantilevers, fabricated in a CMOS compatible process, very promising micro/nano actuators.