Piezoelectric thick film sensors: Fabrication and characterization

The screen printing of piezoelectric materials such as Pb(Zr_x,Ti_1-x)O₃ (PZT) offers a wide range of possible applications for the development of acoustic sensors and the measurement of small size deformations. Material properties characterizations of these PZT thick-films are essential for devices design and applications. To optimize the fabrication process, we measured the electrical properties for different ranges of frequencies and temperature -from 10μHz up to 13MHz between 30 and 400°C-of these thick-films. The piezoelectric coefficients d₃₃ and pyroelectric coefficient are also investigated. Various thicknesses of (PZT) thick films were deposed, up to 60 μm by screen printing process. The deposits were obtained by superposition of several layers thick of 20 microns. We implemented different screen printing processes firing and co-firing duration, controlled temperature rate to bring the better piezoelectric material as possible. We will highlight the use of these thick films to determine liquid properties.