Schematically described the fabrication process. The curved stainless steel represents the substrate with arbitrary morphologies. It is worth noting that the material of the substrate includes but is not limited to stainless steel. Any materials that have been proved to successfully grow piezoelectric ceramic thin films are adaptable to adopt this method. Magnetron sputtering is one recommended method to deposit the conductive layer for piezoelectric measurement. The protective layer is PDMS owing to its high flexibility and chemically inert. The coating method of PDMS is blade coating in this method.
Opportunity
Current piezoelectric process is usually done with fixed geometric material type like flat sheets, disks, or tubes. It is not conducive to be adapted to coating such arbitrary morphologic surfaces as those required by more contemporary products like small IoT devices, smart home appliances, devices that have arbitrary shapes, small personal appliances like fitness watches. Also, other application areas like antifouling, acoustic transduction, energy harvesting, and structural health monitoring.
With this invention, piezoelectric material can be fabricated on any arbitrary morphologic surfaces using thin-film. The method and process is low cost, time saving and repeatable.
Technology
This invention uses piezoelectric thin film fabrication, thus allowing deposition on any arbitrary morphologic surfaces. It is comprised of a series of processes, which includes sol-gel solution preparation, surface activation, solution atomization, brush or roller coating and rapid annealing. The finished surfaces are able to serve as the functional layer on various substrates, even on vehicles, vessels and aircraft. This method is adaptable for various common piezoceramic thin films, such as BaTiO3, (Ba, Ca)(Zr, Ti)O3 and PZT. The painted thin films on stainless steel surfaces of arbitrary morphologies yields good piezoelectric responses.
Advantages
- The fabrication method:
- Highly controllable- Easy to implement- Wide range applications- Energy and time saving- Low cost- repeatable
- The finished products:
- Wide application scenarios- Good piezoelectric responses- Multiple surface shapes with arbitrary morphologies
Applications
- Any products that require piezoelectric property to be activated on surfaces of arbitrary morphologies.
- The thin film fabrication methodology can be used to paint piezoelectric thin films on any irregular shapes such as vehicles, vessels and aircrafts.
- The technology can be utilized in various sensors, energy harvesters and actuators.
