Flexible PZT thin films prepared by Chemical Solution Deposition process

In the topic of the development of the market of flexible electronic, piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film have been elaborated using a Chemical Solution Deposition (CSD) process and a commercial aluminum (Al) foil as substrate. Despite of the low fusion temperature of Al, PZT thin films can be crystallized in the perovskite structure without pyrochlore phase at 650 °C. Due to the flexibility of the aluminium foil, very original forms have been obtained. Dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties have been improved by the use of a conductive electrode of dioxide of ruthenium (RuO2), resulting in an Al/RuO2/PZT/Al capacitor. For energy harvesting applications, experiments have shown that the conductive oxide layer downgrade the harvested power because of the rise of the relative permittivity. However, the use of Interdigited Electrodes (IDE) structure instead of Metal-Insulate-Metal (MIM) structure allows to increase the harvested power up to 8 μW@4 Hz.