Fabrication of Micro Accelerometer Using Screen Printed BaTiO₃ Film on a Ceramic Substrate and Its Characterization

Abstract

The concept of MEMS sensors directly fabricated on a ceramic substrate, which can be used for a package of end product, was proposed. As one of such sensors, a micro accelerometer utilizing a fringe capacitance formed in a ferroelectric material was focused on. For this sensor, in stead of a previously used bulk PZT plate, a screen-printed BaTiO₃ (BTO) film on a ceramic alumina substrate was herein employed. A screen-printing method can save the amount of raw material of the film, because a comparatively thick film can be deposited only on a specified area. Moreover, BTO does not contain harmful lead material. The optimal condition for fabricating a BTO film on an alumina substrate with minimum unwanted surface defects was experimentally searched. The number of defects was decreased by employing a metal barrier of Pt layer underneath BTO, and by setting the annealing temperature for crystallization to a higher value of 1,400°C. A comparatively high relative dielectric constant of ε_r =926 was achieved. An accelerometer using a BTO film was practically fabricated. The sensitivity of it was estimated as 0.1 pF/g, which is degraded a little compare with the previously developed accelerometer using a PZT plate; however, the order is same.