Application of gel-casting to the fabrication of 1-3 piezoelectric ceramic-polymer composites for high-frequency ultrasound devices

作者：Garcia Gancedo L^*; Olhero S M; Alves F J; Ferreira J M F; Demore C E M; Cochran S; Button T W

来源：Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 2012, 22(12): 125001.

DOI：10.1088/0960-1317/22/12/125001

A modified gel-casting technique was used to fabricate a 1-3 piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite substrate formed by irregular-shaped pillar arrays of small dimensions and kerfs. This technique involves the polymerization of aqueous piezoelectric (PZT) suspensions with added water-soluble epoxy resin and polyamine-based hardener that lead to high strength, high density and resilient ceramic bodies. Soft micromoulding was used to shape the ceramic segments, and micropillars with lateral features down to 4 mu m and height-to-width aspect ratios of similar to 10 were achieved. The composite exhibited a clear thickness resonance mode at approximately 70 MHz and a k(eff) similar to 0.51, demonstrating that the ceramic micropillars possess good electrical properties. Furthermore, gel-casting allows the fabrication of ceramic structures with non-conventional shapes; hence, device design is not limited by the standard fabrication methods. This is of particular benefit for high-frequency transducers where the critical design dimensions are reduced.

• 出版日期2012-12
• 单位河北医科大学