Air-coupled piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer array based on low-cost and large remnant polarization PZT thin film

Air-coupled piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer array based on low-cost and large remnant polarization PZT thin film | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Air-coupled piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer array based on low-cost and large remnant polarization PZT thin film Jia-Ling Lin, Ya-Han Liu, Chien-Lun Kao, Shao-Wei Wu, Han-Jen Hsu, and 5 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5392012/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Due to the development of semiconductor technology, control and driving circuits for large phased arrays have become cheaper and more compact, enabling air-coupled ultrasonic transducer arrays to be applied in areas such as ultrasonic haptic feedback and acoustic levitation. However, current air-coupled ultrasonic transducers are quite bulky, which prevents the commercialization of these applications. Hence, piezoelectric micromachining ultrasonic transducers (pMUT) have been proposed to replace conventional ultrasound transducers. Currently, PZT, or lead zirconate titanate, thin film is the most reliable and, consequently, most popular piezoelectric layer for pMUT, but existing PZT fabrication methods are too expensive or require rare metals. To counter this problem, this study proposed a cost-effective and reliable PZT thin film fabrication method. By depositing a commercial sol-gel solution as a seed layer followed by radio frequency sputtering, a PZT thin film with remnant polarization of 113.35 μC/cm 2 and a coercive field of 211.6 kV/cm was demonstrated. Moreover, high-throughput air-coupled pMUTs and pMUT arrays were made based on the proposed PZT thin film. Finite element method simulations were conducted to optimize the structure parameters for the 40 kHz pMUT. A standard microphone was used to measure the acoustic pressure at 3 cm above the pMUT and the pMUT array to evaluate their performance. The pMUT generated an acoustic pressure of 0.764 Pa/V with a resonance frequency of 52.2 kHz, and the pMUT array’s maximum acoustic pressure was 87.4 Pa. This is the highest known acoustic output pressure among sub-100 kHz air-coupled pMUT arrays, highlighting the potential of using the proposed PZT thin film deposition method for high-pressure mid-air ultrasonic applications such as ultrasonic haptic feedback and acoustic levitation. Acoustic Levitation Non-contact Tweezer Acoustic Trap Transducer Array. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5392012","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":375150127,"identity":"3ce63407-baf2-4e29-8052-337f08b7c467","order_by":0,"name":"Jia-Ling Lin","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National Cheng Kung University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jia-Ling","middleName":"","lastName":"Lin","suffix":""},{"id":375150128,"identity":"395f74fe-65c6-4d17-a5ad-54cfad865387","order_by":1,"name":"Ya-Han Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"National Cheng Kung 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However, current air-coupled ultrasonic transducers are quite bulky, which prevents the commercialization of these applications. Hence, piezoelectric micromachining ultrasonic transducers (pMUT) have been proposed to replace conventional ultrasound transducers. Currently, PZT, or lead zirconate titanate, thin film is the most reliable and, consequently, most popular piezoelectric layer for pMUT, but existing PZT fabrication methods are too expensive or require rare metals. To counter this problem, this study proposed a cost-effective and reliable PZT thin film fabrication method. By depositing a commercial sol-gel solution as a seed layer followed by radio frequency sputtering, a PZT thin film with remnant polarization of 113.35 μC/cm\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e and a coercive field of 211.6 kV/cm was demonstrated. Moreover, high-throughput air-coupled pMUTs and pMUT arrays were made based on the proposed PZT thin film. 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