Experimental and numerical analyses of thick‐film piezoceramic structures for miniaturised sensors and actuators

The successful use of piezoceramic thick films in sensors and actuators requires a thorough understanding of their electrical and electromechanical characteristics. Since these characteristics depend not only on the material's composition but also on its compatibility with various substrates and a number of processing parameters, accurate measurements of the material's parameters are essential. Here, the aim of this paper is to present a procedure for characterising lead‐zirconate‐titanate (PZT) thick films on pre‐fired low‐temperature co‐fired ceramic (LTCC) substrates performed in order to determine the material parameters for numerical modelling.

Owing to the lack of standard procedures for measuring the elastic and piezoelectric properties of the films, the compliance parameters were evaluated from the results of nano‐indentation tests, and a substrate‐flexure method was used to evaluate the transverse piezoelectric coefficients.

The validation of the material model and the finite‐element (FE) analysis of the demonstrator sensor/actuator structures are shown to be in agreement with the FE model, even if not an exact fit.

This paper focuses on a characterisation of PZT thick films screen‐printed on pre‐fired LTCC substrates.