Micro-machined high-frequency (80 MHz) PZT thick film linear arrays

This paper presents the development of a micromachined high-frequency linear array using PZT piezoelectric thick films. The linear array has 32 elements with an element width of 24 microm and an element length of 4 mm. Array elements were fabricated by deep reactive ion etching of PZT thick films, which were prepared from spin-coating of PZT sol-gel composite. Detailed fabrication processes, especially PZT thick film etching conditions and a novel transferring-and-etching method, are presented and discussed. Array designs were evaluated by simulation. Experimental measurements show that the array had a center frequency of 80 MHz and a fractional bandwidth (-6 dB) of 60%. An insertion loss of -41 dB and adjacent element crosstalk of -21 dB were found at the center frequency.