Facilities Required for Piezoelectric Materials and its Applications Developments

Electrical/Electronics Equipment

  • Oscilloscopes
    • With AC current probes
    • High Voltage probes
    • DC low current measurement probes
  • Function generators
  • Amplifiers
  • DC Power Supplies
  • AC Power Supplies
  • DC-Loads
  • Soldering Stations [Tutorial]
  • Vibrators
  • Vibrometer
  • Accelerometers and Data Acquisition System
  • GPIB Cables

Piezoelectric Material Characterization and Testing

Piezoelectric Material

    • Lead Zirconate Titanate
          • PbO
          • TiO2
          • ZrO2 ( High Quality Zirconia White Powder)
          • Dopants
    • Barium Titanate
    • Aluminium Nitride (AIN)

Electrode Paste

The Silver and Palladium (Ag-Pd) paste is used for electrodes in piezo ceramics. Addition of Pd to Ag increases the melting point and allows it to be co-fired at higher temperatures. Due to, their high cost, cheaper electrode materials e.g. Cu, Ni, etc. are under study. After application the paste is annealed in air at high temperature to remove the binder and provide bonding to the ceramic surface. This bonding between the electrode and ceramic plays a very crucial role, as the columbic interaction between the electrode and dielectric material modifies the barrier height at the interface, which determines the transport of electrons injected during the poling process. [ref]

  • For low-temperature co-fired PT, Ag/Pd (963, ESL ElectroScience) [website]
  • For high-temperature co-fired PT, Pt (5574, ESL ElectroScience) inner electrode [website]
  • Ag, Ag/Pd paste, Noritake Co. Ltd , Japan [website]
  • Inner electrode we used LS-101 [website], made by CST
  • Outer electrodes we used: LS-453-1 [website]
  • 7095 from Dupont [website]
  • HanTech Korea [website]
  • Silver Paste Sigma-Aldrich Cat#735825 (low temperature option, not tried yet)[website]

Piezoelectric Material Manufacturing Equipment

  • Polishing Machine
  • Ball-Milling Machine
  • Tape-Casting
  • Heating Chambers
  • Mixers
  • Poling Machine

Piezoelectric Materials Manufacturing Process

Step A— Batch Weighting

          • Batch weighing of stoichiometric quantities of PbO TiO2 & ZrO2

Step B — Milling Homogenization

          • The operation with mills is used to homogenize powders, reduce particle sizes and break agglomerates. It is of special attention in the process of technical ceramics the type of mill to be used and the time of grinding. It has been observed that the particle size decreases and the amount of contaminant increases with the grinding time.

Step C— Calcination

          • Calcinations is one of the most studied parts of the ceramic process, since it has a strong influence on the characteristic of the powders. Four stages have been found for the case of ceramics type PZT.

Stage 1: Begins the decomposition of the starting materials (carbonates, oxalates, nitrates).

Stage 2: Lead oxide reacts with titanium dioxide.

Stage 3: The composition of the desired compound is initiated; the zirconium dioxide is reacted with the mixture obtained in the previous step.

Stage 4: Homogenization of the reaction.

The selection of the reactants, grinding time and calcinations regimes is sustained on the experience obtained by previous studies . To confirm that occurred the formation reaction of the PZT system completely without the presence of other phases, is carried out X-ray diffraction on the calcined material.

The Tape Casting Process

Step 1 — Slurry Preparation

• Powder milling & mixing

          • Piezoelectric material formulations for lower sintering temperatures

Step-2 — Tape Casting

• Green Sheet manufacturing using tape-casting method

          • Required tape thickness using tape casting machines

Step 3 — Screen Printing, Stacking and Pressing

• Ag-Pd or Pt inner electrodes printing on green sheets

• Layers stacking

• Green sheet Laminating by isostatic pressing ow WIP

Step 4 — Cutting and Green Shaping

• Automated or Manual cutting of green sheets or bars

• Flexible contours by milling, drilling or punching

Step 5 — Binder Burnout

•The sintering process is divided into two regions. The first region (and the most critical during heating) is between 60° C and 350° C . In this region, the moisture and the binder are volatilized and extracted. Before starting densification, it is necessary to remove the binder, which has fulfilled its function in the compaction process, as well as the residual moisture contained in the compacted ceramics; this operation must be carried out very slowly, to avoid cracks and pores that decrease the density of the ceramic body. For simple shapes of shaped parts a heating of approximately 10° C/min can be performed, being tolerated without structural difficulties.

          • Slow binder burnout up to 500 °C to remove green bar/sheet inner binder

Step 6 — Sintering

• In the second region from 350° C to the sintering temperature, the reaction of the raw material residues that have not yet done so in the calcination step occurs, and then the densification process begins.

          • Co-firing temperatures ranging from 1100 °C to 1300 °C, depending on material

Step 7 — Layer Interconnection / outer electrodes printing on sintered materials

• Via holes

• Termination screen printing or sputtering

• Soldering of the contact strip

Step 8 — Poling

• Poling at room temperature using polarization machine

Step 9 — Measurement

          • Piezoelectric characteristic measurement using impedance analyzer and D33 meter

Step 10 — Assembly and Final Inspection

• Assembly according to customer requirements

Simulation Software

  • ATILA FEM (Purchases software with only Harmonic Analysis)
  • COMSOL (Yearly renewable License, installed and Purchased)
  • ANSYS (License can be provided by Mechanical Department, Hanyang University)
  • LTSpice (Free)
  • Cadence Virtuoso (Yearly renewable License, installed and Purchased)
  • MATLAB (License provided by Hanyang University)
  • EndNote (License provided by Hanyang University)
  • Origin (License provided by Hanyang University)

Electronics Hardware Kits

  • Texas Instruments (TI) EZ430-RF2500T WSN kit with Simplicity Protocol
  • MeshBee Modules (NXP JN5168 Microcontroller based module with ZigBee Communication)
  • IPS-EVAL-EH-01 kit from InfinitePowerSolutions
  • BQ25504EVM (BQ25504 IC Battery Management Evaluation Board)
  • RS232-USB Converters
  • Arduino Boards

Piezoelectric Energy Harvester Modules

Free Online Tools

EndNote (엔드노트) Library

The EndNote library is developed for "Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting" and "Step-down Piezoelectric Transformer" by Dr. Hamid Jabbar. EndNote licensed is acquired by the Hanyang University. EndNote library can be shared for research collaboration. Anyone who has EndNote X7 can share a library regardless of where he is.

To share a library on your computer, you need to

  1. Download and Install EndNote (엔드노트) Version X8 from HYU Portal.
  2. Register for an account in EndNote Online at http://my.endnote.com or http://myendnoteweb.com.
  3. Send an email request to Dr. Hamid to access his library.