Large-displacement actuating and high-frequency vibrating characteristics of silicon-based antiferroelectric (Pb, La)(Zr, Ti)O3 thick-film micro-cantilevers

•Si-based Antiferroelectric (Pb, La) (Zr, Ti) O3 thick films micro-cantilevers were fabricated by bulk silicon micro-machining technology.•The antiferroelectricity of micro-cantilever was proofed by typical double hysteresis loop of square-like.•The vibration displacement and vibration velocity of micro-cantilever increased with the cantilever's the length increasing, but the response frequency has the opposite trend.

Five micro-cantilevers in different length and width but the same thickness were fabricated with the antiferroelectric (Pb, La)(Zr, Ti)O3 thick film, and show superior actuation behaviors (33 μm for the maximum displacement) and high vibration characteristics (107.11 kHz for the greatest frequency) owing to the high displacement caused by the phase transition. At first, the vibration characteristics were verified. With the micro-cantilever length varying from 400 μm to 650 μm, the vibrating displacement and velocity both increased, while the response frequency decreased. Next, the antiferroelectricity was tested and the results indicate all of 5 micro-cantilevers have typical antiferroelectric properties with double hysteresis loop square-like. As a result, these testing results can help micro-actuators with a key driving technology of micro-miniature, rapid response speed and large displacement.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide