Several mechanical designs capable of amplifying the performance of electroactive ceramic actuators and sensors have been presented in the smart materials and structures literature. The realization of these designs on the microscale requires a fabrication technique capable of producing intricate ceramic and electrode structures. Microfabrication by coextrusion (MFCX) provides a simple and inexpensive method to produce axially symmetric structures. It allows concurrent shaping of both the electroactive ceramic and electrode materials, thereby removing the necessity of performing complex electroding procedures after sintering the ceramic. Typically these post firing procedures are difficult, if not impossible, with microdevices. The MFCX technique is a two step process. The first is the use of coextrusion to shape powder-filled thermoplastic compounds into green microsized parts. The second is a co-firing step to achieve binder burnout and densification of both the ceramic and electrode materials. Electroactive ceramic and silver palladium parts with 5 micron feature sizes have been fabricated using this method. This article includes a description of this new microfabrication technique and results of efforts to fabricate microsized ceramic objects including a fenestrated electrostrictive ceramic-silver palladium electrode structure and a piezoelectric hydrophone.

Date Published: 20 July 1998
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 3324, Smart Structures and Materials 1998: Smart Materials Technologies, (20 July 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.316872

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3324:
Smart Structures and Materials 1998: Smart Materials Technologies
Manfred R. Wuttig, Editor(s)