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High piezoelectric coupling coefficients of PZT-based material systems can be employed for actuator functions in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) offering displacements and forces which outperform standard solutions. This paper presents simulation, fabrication, and development results of a stress-compensated, PZT-coated cantilever concept in which a silicon bulk micromachining process is used in combination with a chemical solution deposition (CSD) technique. Due to an analytical approach and a finite element method (FEM) simulation for a tip displacement of 10 µm, the actuator was designed with a cantilever length of 300 µm to 1000 µm. Special attention was given to the Zr/Ti ratio of the PZT thin films to obtain a high piezoelectric coefficient. For first characterizations X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), hysteresis-, current-voltage I(V)- and capacitance-voltage C(V)-measurements were carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we report on the investigation of the piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of Pb(Zr,Ti)O 3 (PZT) thin films with a composition of 45% zirconium and 55% titanium prepared by chemical solution deposition (CSD) regarding the major properties required in MEMS applications. Therefore we have measured the polarization and the piezoelectric coefficient d 33 and strain using a high-resolution double beam laser interferometer. We found that d 33 alike the strain is nearly independent of the sample thickness. To estimate the lifetime of MEMS we stressed the samples by applying switching and non-switching voltage pulses. In the non-switching case, no change of the material properties was observed whereas the use of switching voltage pulses resulted in a strong decrease of the piezoelectric properties and the polarization. Here we found a linear behavior between the material properties in the fatigued state and the sample thickness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]