Non-Lead Based Piezoelectric Thin Films: Materials and Energy Harvesting Device

Non-lead based piezoelectric thin films of (K,Na)(Nb,Ta)O3–BiFeO3 (NKNT-BF) were successfully fabricated by the chemical solution deposition method. Small concentration of BF (5 mol %) added into NKNT films led to a fully dense microstructure and enhanced dielectric and piezoelectric properties compared to pure NKNT films. The measured dielectric constant and piezoelectric d33 values were around 575 and 50 pC/N, respectively. A thin film NKNT-BF piezoelectric cantilever with a micromachined Si proof mass was fabricated for a low frequency vibration energy harvesting device. The average power and the power density of NKNT-BF energy harvesting cantilever with the device volume of 0.007 cm3 were 1.82 μW and 260 μW/cm3 at the resonance frequency of 130 Hz and the acceleration of 0.75 G. Even if these values were somewhat inferior to those of the conventional PZT energy harvesting device, NKNT-BF thin film provided the promising results as an alternative material of PZT for the piezoelectric MEMS applications ...