A piezo-mechanical characterization of PZT thick films screen-printed on alumina substrate

Thick soft and hard lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films are fabricated on alumina substrates using the screen-printing technique. The geometries of the substrates are suited to three different mechanical characterization tests devoted to the determination of the Young's modulus of the films: a dynamic, a quasi-static and a nanoindentation test. Values of 52 +/- 8 and 20 +/- 7 GPa for the Young's modulus are, respectively calculated for the soft- and hard-PZT. These values are strongly influenced by porosity in the films. The piezoelectric coefficient d(31) is also investigated. It is found to be near -120 +/- 5 pC/N for the soft-PZT and it is close to -25 +/- 3 pC/N for the hard-PZT Motivated by experimental observations, a non-linear piezo-mechanical model predicting the electromechanical behavior of a cantilever bimorph is developed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.