• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.447-452
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• 2016

In this study, we fabricated and evaluated the performance of film speaker using PVDF/ZnO NP composite structure. PVDF piezoelectric films were fabricated and characterized by XRD and SEM. ZnO nanopillars were prepared by hydrothermal synthesis on prepared PVDF piezoelectric films. We analyzed and tested the acoustic signal characteristics of the piezoelectric film. In order to fabricate an acoustic structure with a wide frequency range from low to high frequency, we have fabricated various types of film speakers and investigated the frequency characteristics. As a result, the fundamental piezoelectric properties of PVDF show that the piezoelectric constant due to ZnO NP increases. And the overall acoustic signal level is also increased by 10% or more. We investigated frequency generation from 500 Hz to 10 KHz using different sizes with PVDF/ZnO NP composite film speaker.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.619-623
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• 2006

The most important factor which determines resonance characteristics of FBAR(Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator) is the piezoelectricity of piezoelectric film. The piezoelectric properties of ZnO thin films which is strong as FBAR piezoelectric film is determined by the degree of c-axis preferred orientation with (002) plan. Therefore, many researchers have been interested in the study on the preferred orientation of the piezoelectric thin film. This paper has studied the preferred orientation of ZnO piezoelectric thin films using the helped seed layer of ZnO. The result shows that the c-axis ZnO thin films with columnar grains that the value of standard $deviation(\sigma)$ of XRD rocking curve is of $\sigma=1.15^{\circ}$ have the excellent piezoelectric property.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.531-537
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• 2006

A micromachined piezoelectric microspeaker was fabricated with a highly c-axis oriented ZnO thin film on a silicon-nitride film having compressive residual stress. When it was measured 3 mm away from the microspeaker in open field, the largest sound pressure level produced by the fabricated microspeaker was about 91 dB at around 2.9 kHz for the applied voltage of $6\;V_{peak-to-peak}$. The key technologies to these successful results were as follows: (1) the usage of a wrinkled diaphragm caused by the high compressive residual stress of silicon-nitride thin film, (2) the usage of the highly c-axis oriented ZnO thin film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.297.2-297.2
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• 2013

Scavenging electricity from wasteful energy resources is currently an important issue and piezoelectric nanogenerators (NGs) based on zinc oxide (ZnO) are promising energy harvesters that can be adapted to various portable, wearable, self-powered electronic devices. Although ZnO has several advantages for NGs, the piezoelectric semiconductor material ZnO generate an intrinsic piezoelectric potential of a few volts as a result of its mechanical deformation. As grown, ZnO is usually n-type, a property that was historically ascribed to native defects. Oxygen vacancies (Vo) that work as donors exist in ZnO thin film and usually screen some parts of the piezoelectric potential. Consequently, the ZnO NGs' piezoelectric power cannot reach to its theoretical value, and thus decreasing the effect from Vo is essential. In the present study, c-axis oriented insulator-like sputtered ZnO thin films were grown in various temperatures to fabricate an optimized nanogenerator (NGs). The purity and crystalinity of ZnO were investigated with photoluminescence (PL). Moreover, by introducing a p-type polymer usually used in organic solar cell, it was discussed how piezoelectric passivation effect works in ZnO thin films having different types of defects. Prepared ZnO thin films have both Zn vacancies (accepter like) and oxygen vacancies (donor like). It generates output voltage 20 time lager than n-type dominant semiconducting ZnO thin film without p-type polymer conjugating. The enhancement is due to the internal accepter like point defects, zinc vacancies (VZn). When the more VZn concentration increases, the more chances to prevent piezoelectric potential screening effects are occurred, consequently, the output voltage is enhanced. Moreover, by passivating remained effective oxygen vacancies by p-type polymers, we demonstrated further power enhancement.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07b
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• pp.703-706
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• 2002

Piezoelectric thin film such as ZnO and AlN can be applicable to FBAR (Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator) device of thin film type and FBAR can be applicable to MMIC. The characteristic of FBAR device is variable according to the deposition conditions of piezoelectric thin film when preparation of thin film by sputtering method. In this study, we prepared ZnO thin film for FBAR using Facing Targets Sputtering apparatus which can be deposited fine Quality thin film because temperature increase of substrate due to the bombardment of high-energy particles can be restrained. And crystalline and c-axis preferred orientation of ZnO thin film with deposition conditions was investigated by XRD.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.159-163
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• 2005

This paper gives characterization of ZnO thin film deposited by RF magnetron sputtering method, which is concerned in deposition process and device fabrication process, to fabricate solidly mounted resonator(SMR)-type film bulk acoustic resonator(FBAR). A piezoelectric layer of 1.1${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ thick ZnO thin films were grown on thermally oxidized SiO$_2$(3000 $\AA$)/Si substrate layers by RF magnetron sputtering at the room temperature. The highly c-axis oriented ZnO thin film was obtained at the conditions of 265 W of RF power, 10 mtorr of working pressure, and 50/50 of Ar/O$_2$ gas ratio. The piezoelectric-active area was 50 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$${\times}$50${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$, and the thickness of ZnO film and Al-3 % Cu electrode were 1.4 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ and 180${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$, respectively. Its series and parallel frequencies appeared at 2.128 and 2.151 GHz, respectively, and the qualify factor of the resonator was as high as 401.8$\pm$8.5.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.05c
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• pp.141-144
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• 2003

This study proposes ZnO thin film as a piezoelectric material for SAW (surface acoustic wave) filter. The ZnO thin film with thickness $2.6{\mu}m$ was deposited (0001)-oriented sapphire by RF magnetron sputtering technique. IDTs (inter-digital transducers) electrodes were patterned upon SAW filter mask with solid finger structure unapodized using lift-off method on ZnO piezoelectric thin film. SAW propagation velocity was measured with the center frequency by HP 8753C network analyzer. A fabricated ZnO SAW filter exhibited a high propagation velocity of 5433 $^m/s$ and relatively insertion loss of -53.391dB at $\lambda=80{\mu}m$. The side-lobe attenuation of the center frequency was about 17dB. When the wavelength was $80{\mu}m$ $(\lambda/4=20{\mu}m)$, the center frequency was 67.907 MHz. $k^2$ (electromechanical coupling coefficient) was 15.84 %.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.06b
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• pp.17-20
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• 2001

In this paper, film bulk acoustic resonator(FBAR) with an air-gap is fabricated by removing ZnO sacrificial layer and its characteristics as a various dimension of ZnO sacrificial and piezoelectric layer is evaluated. The center frequency of the FBAR device with the ZnO film is about 1.9 GHz. Because of mass-loading effect, a dimension of sacrificial layer and piezoelectrc layer affect frequency response such as center frequency, insertion loss, band separation, attenuation and so on.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1989.06a
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• pp.66-69
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• 1989

After reviewing previous work done on two piezoelectric thin films(PZT, ZnO), ZnO thin piezofim of 1-3UM is fabricated by sputtering on the different substrates(i. e., P+Si/N-Si, SiO2/P+Si/ N-Si, Al/SiO2/ P+Si/ N+Si). The result shows that ZnO piezofilm on the Al has the best c-axis orientation. One of applications for the ZnO piezofilm as an microvalve to control liquid flow is introduced, and which can be controlled electrically and remotely.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.55-71
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• 2013

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is vital for detecting the onset of damage and for preventing catastrophic failure of civil infrastructure systems. In particular, piezoelectric transducers have the ability to excite and actively interrogate structures (e.g., using surface waves) while measuring their response for sensing and damage detection. In fact, piezoelectric transducers such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) have been used for various laboratory/field tests and possess significant advantages as compared to visual inspection and vibration-based methods, to name a few. However, PZTs are inherently brittle, and PVDF films do not possess high piezoelectricity, thereby limiting each of these devices to certain specific applications. The objective of this study is to design, characterize, and validate piezoelectric nanocomposites consisting of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles assembled in a PVDF copolymer matrix for sensing and SHM applications. These films provide greater mechanical flexibility as compared to PZTs, yet possess enhanced piezoelectricity as compared to pristine PVDF copolymers. This study started with spin coating dispersed ZnO- and PVDF-TrFE-based solutions to fabricate the piezoelectric nanocomposites. The concentration of ZnO nanoparticles was varied from 0 to 20 wt.% (in 5 % increments) to determine their influence on bulk film piezoelectricity. Second, their electric polarization responses were obtained for quantifying thin film remnant polarization, which is directly correlated to piezoelectricity. Based on these results, the films were poled (at 50 $MV-m^{-1}$) to permanently align their electrical domains and to enhance their bulk film piezoelectricity. Then, a series of hammer impact tests were conducted, and the voltage generated by poled ZnO-based thin films was compared to commercially poled PVDF copolymer thin films. The hammer impact tests showed comparable results between the prototype and commercial samples, and increasing ZnO content provided enhanced piezoelectric performance. Lastly, the films were further validated for sensing using different energy levels of hammer impact, different distances between the impact locations and the film electrodes, and cantilever free vibration testing for dynamic strain sensing.