Designing direct printing process for improved piezoelectric micro-devices

The integrated use of thin film lead zirconate titanate (PZT) for micro-scale devices and transducers has been limited due to the coupled nature and process constraints of the current manufacturing processes for PZT. Direct printing of PZT would eliminate many of these couplings and constraints by providing controllable drop-on-demand deposition. This paper presents the design interaction analysis that leads to the development of an optimized drop-on-demand deposition process as a novel manufacturing process for PZT thin films. The uncoupled nature of this new deposition method enables the design of a new class of PZT micro-devices that has not been possible with current processing techniques.