Tape Casting for Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) Multilayer Composites

Tape casting is a process for making thin flat ceramic pieces by using a scraping blade or doctor blade to evenly coat a smooth surface with a slip[ 1 ]. The slip is a mixture of powder, solvent, binder, and other organics which result in a paint like consistency after they are mixed. The tapes is cast into thicknesses ranging from 1 to 50 mils on a smooth surface , which is usually made of Mylar, and left to dry. Once the tape has dried it can be cut into several different shapes and sizes, and then fired to form two dimensional flat packages [2]. These pieces in the green state can also be punched and machined to produce the products which can be used in electronic substrates and packages. In our project tape casting was used to cast Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) and polymer flat pieces for piezoelectric transducer devices used in medical applications. Previous work had been done on making the Ain stacked PZT layers by using a diamond blade saw to cut wafers, but due to saw\u27s in producing thicknesses smaller than lmil, it was decided to use the process of tape casting