By integrating a complex, single-crystal material with piezoelectric properties onto silicon, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and physicists can fabricate low-voltage, near-nanoscale electromechanical devices that could lead to improvements in high-resolution 3-D imaging, signal processing, communications, energy harvesting, sensing, and actuators for nanopositioning devices, among others.
The advanced piezoelectric material lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate, or PMN-PT, exhibits a "giant" piezoelectric response that can deliver much greater mechanical displacement, with the same amount of electric field as traditional piezoelectric materials. They also can act as both actuators and sensors. For example, they use electricity to deliver an ultrasound wave that penetrates deeply into the body and returns data capable of displaying a high-quality 3-D image.
Researchers worked from the ground up to integrate PMN-PT seamlessly onto silicon. The team calls devices fabricated from this piezoelectric material "hyper-active MEMS" for their potential to offer researchers a high level of active control. Using the material, his team also developed a process for fabricating piezoelectric MEMS.
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