Preparation and application of the 3C-SiC substrate to piezoelectric micro cantilever transducers

This study examines the fabrication process and mechanical properties of piezoelectric films with the substrate, which is made from silicon carbide. After depositing the PZT thick film on silicon carbide substrate and silicon substrate respectively, it was shown that silicon carbide substrate formed a stable interface with PZT thick film up to 950 A degrees C, compared with silicon substrate. In addition, the dielectric constant of the PZT thick film sintered at 950 A degrees C on a silicon carbide substrate was 843, and this value was about over 25 % improved value compared with that on a silicon substrate. A thick film piezoelectric micro transducer of a micro cantilever type was fabricated by using a multifunctional 3C-SiC substrate. The fabricated micro cantilever was a micro cantilever with multiple thin films on either silicon or silicon carbide substrate. The piezoelectric thick-film micro cantilever that was fabricated by using a SiC substrate showed excellent mechanical and thermal properties. The piezoelectric micro cantilever on the SiC substrate shows an excellent sensitivity towards the change of mass compared with the piezoelectric micro cantilever on the Si substrate.This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education Science and Technology (Grant No. NRF-2010-0012249). Also, the authors are grateful for the financial support from the Intelligent Microsystem Center sponsored by the Korea Ministry of Science and Technology as a part of the 21st Century's Frontier R&D Projects (Grant No. MS-01-133-01)