Fabrication and characterisation of piezoelectric screen-printed in plane resonant microcantilevers used as gravimetric sensors

Screen-printed microcantilever transducers of different geometries (1 × 1 × 0.1 mm³ to 8 × 2 × 0.1 mm³) are fabricated and characterised. The microcantilevers are made of PbZr_0.52Ti_0.48O₃ (PZT) which allows them to be self-actuated and self-readout. A polyester sacrificial layer is used in the releasing of the beam and decomposes entirely during the firing step of the PZT at 900 °C without further intervention. This process gives resonators with quality factors as high as 2000 and a densification equal to 93.8% of the bulk PZT. Experimental measurements testing the transducers as gravimetric sensors give mass sensitivities of 85 Hz μg⁻¹ with a corresponding limit of detection of 70 ng at a resonant frequency of 680 kHz. (paper)