Giant Piezoelectric Effect to Improve MEMS Devices

These engineered films have great potential for energy harvesting applications, as well as in micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS), micro actuators, and sensors for a variety of miniaturized systems, such as ultrasound imaging, microfluidics, and mechanical sensing.

Piezoelectric materials can transform electrical energy into mechanical energy and vice versa. Most MEMS utilize silicon, the standard material for semiconductor electronics, as the substrate. Integrating piezoelectric thin films onto silicon-based MEMS devices with dimensions from micrometers to a few millimeters in size will add an active component that can take advantage of motion, such as a footstep or a vibrating motor, to generate electric current, or use a small applied voltage to create micron level motion, such as in focusing a digital camera.

Previously, the best piezoelectric MEMS devices were made with layers of silicon and lead zirconium titanate (PZT) films. Recently, a team led by Chang-Beom Eom of University of Wisconsin-Madison synthesized a lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT) thin film integrated on a silicon substrate.

The Penn State team, led by Susan Trolier-McKinstry, professor of ceramic science and engineering, and including research associate Srowthi Bharadwaja, PhD, measured the electrical and piezoelectric performance of the thin films and compared the PMN-PT films against the reported values of other micromachined actuator materials to show the potential of PMN-PT for actuator and energy harvesting applications.

In a recent article in Science, the team reported the highest values of piezoelectric properties for any piezoelectric thin film to-date, and a two-fold higher figure of merit than the best reported PZT films for energy harvesting applications. This increase in the effective piezoelectric activity in a thin film will result in a dramatic improvement in performance. For example, energy harvesting using such thin films will provide local power sources for wireless sensor nodes for bridges, aircraft, and potentially for human-body sensors.

Along with the researchers from Penn State and UW-Madison, the participating institutions included the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, Cornell University, and Argonne National Laboratory. The paper, titled “Giant Piezoelectricity on Si for Hyperactive MEMS,” appeared in the Nov. 18 issue of Science. Work at Penn State was supported by a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship. Other support was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Air Force Office for Scientific Research, and a David Lucile Packard Fellowship.

For more information, contact Susan Trolier-McKinstry at 814 863-8348 or stmckinstry@psu.edu. Visit the Materials Research Institute and its new home in the Millennium Science Complex at www.mri.psu.edu.

Media Contact

Susan Trolier-McKinstry Newswise Science News

More Information:

http://www.psu.edu

All latest news from the category: Materials Sciences

Materials management deals with the research, development, manufacturing and processing of raw and industrial materials. Key aspects here are biological and medical issues, which play an increasingly important role in this field.

innovations-report offers in-depth articles related to the development and application of materials and the structure and properties of new materials.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors