Bending of piezoelectric cantilevers

What is it about?

We have used a method to experimentally determine the curvature of thin film multilayers in all oxide cantilevers. This method is applicable for large deflections and enables the radius of curvature of the beam, at a certain distance from the anchor, to be determined accurately. The deflections of the suspended beams are measured at different distances from the anchor point using SEM images and the expression of the deflection curve is calculated for each cantilever. With this expression it is possible to calculate the value of the radius of curvature at the free end of the cantilever. Together with measured values for the Youngs Modulus, this enabled us to determine the residual stress in each cantilever. This analysis has been applied to SrRuO3/BaTiO3/SrRuO3, BaTiO3/MgO/SrTiO3 and BaTiO3/SrTiO3 piezoelectric cantilevers and the results compared to two models in which the stresses are determined by lattice parameter mismatch or differences in thermal expansion coefficient. Our analysis shows that the bending of the beams is mainly due the thermal stress generated during the cooling down stage subsequent to the film deposition.

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