3D Piezoelectric Structures Made by Ink-Jet Printing

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report the potential interest to develop piezoelectric structures by taking advantage both of the adaptive electromechanical behavior of 0.9PbMg 1/3 Nb 2/3 O 3 (PMN)-0.1PbTiO 3 (PT) ceramics and of the characteristics of rapid prototyping methods. In fact, as the piezo-activity of 0.9PMN-0.1PT ceramics is adjustable via the amplitude of the electric field; the design of array probes for medical diagnosis could be notably simplified compared to the present one using PZT compositions. Besides, prototyping process such as ink-jet printing equipment is promising to generate fine-scale 1-3 composite structures, and consequently to improve the spatial resolution of medical probes. So, the effect of the organic/ceramic systems for ink-jet printing on its fluid properties, conditioning the definition of the ceramic structures, are reported in this paper. Keywords: 0.9PMN-0.1PTCeramicInk-jet PrintingViscosity