Piezoelectric low-curing-temperature ink for sensors and power harvesting

Abstract

In this paper a piezoelectric ink with curing temperature as low as 150°C is presented. It is intended to be used in MEMS, sensors, actuators and power harvesting field. Ink composition and fabrication steps are described. Electrical characterization of a ink film sample realized with screen printing technology is reported, showing a dielectric constant εr 10 = 100 ± 10%. The ferroelectric hysteresis loop of the piezoelectric ink has been measured by means of a custom PC-based measurement system. A remanent polarization of 0.8 μC/cm2 was measured with a maximum applied electric field of about 13 MV/m. In addition, the possibility of depositing the ink with a drop-on-demand technology was demonstrated, by using a commercial piezoelectric microdispensing device with a 80-μm diameter orifice. Dissolving the PZT ink in ethylene glycol diacetate, wt ratio 1:3, single drops with a diameter of 175 μm have been deposited. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.