2010 International Conference on Solid Dielectrics, Potsdam, Germany, July 4-9, 2010

Piezoelectric Sensor Based on Electret Thermoforming Technology

Daniel Rodrigo Falconi, Ruy Alberto Correa Alta m, Ruy Alberto Pisani Alta m and Heitor Cury Basso
Department of Electrical Engineering S o Carlos School of Engineering, a University of S o Paulo, a S o Carlos - Brazil. a

Werner Wirges and Reimund Gerhard

Applied Condensed Matter Physics, Department of Physics and astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam-Golm - Germany.

AbstractTe on FEP thermoformed piezoelectric transducers based on electret technology, which were introduced in 2005, basically consist of the fusion of two Te on FEP lms, creating air bubbles at the interface. The top and bottom of the air bubble surfaces are posterior charged to opposite polarities, forming large electric dipoles. Although this technology has enabled the production of transducers with piezoelectric coef cients above 300 pC/N, it is still in the laboratory stage. This paper proposes some improvements through a new methodology whereby the molding of one of the Te on FEP lms in a template is followed by fusion by hot lamination. This method enables control of the distribution and diameter of the bubbles and the production of piezoelectric transducers for speci c applications such as presence sensors, thin keyboards, dynamic balances and pressure sensors.

I. I NTRODUCTION Since 1999, much attention has focused on cellular polymeric lms containing micro-air gaps [1, 2]. These fairly new polymeric materials have introduced new prospects for piezoelectric sensor and transducer applications and also for the development of other important technologies such as MEMS energy harvesting devices. The reason why these cellular lms, also known as ferroor piezoelectrets [3, 4], have received so much attention is because they exhibit high piezoelectric coef cients when the voids inside the lms are electrically charged, creating several small electret microphones that can be set in motion easily by mechanical or electrical stimulation. In response to proper charging and material processing, piezoelectric coef cients one hundred times higher than in traditional piezoelectric polymer lms (PVDF) have been reported [4]. In the last decade, the focus of this research area has been on new methodologies to process and create air gaps in polymer lms, resulting in materials with different mechanical and thermal properties [58]. In 2003, Alta m and coworkers [9] presented a alternative approach for producing air gaps in polymeric material. This new approach consisted of gluing two Te on FEP lms together with sprayed varnish. Air gaps were formed naturally among the varnish drops, and piezoelectric coef cients of up to 300 pC/N could be obtained by electrically charging this structure. However, the main problem of this technique was

the low mechanical resistance of the structure leading to a short lifetime. Then, in 2005, after further developing this concept, Alta m et al. [10, 11] produced piezoelectrets containing small bubbles simply by molding and fusing two Te on FEP lms using a specially designed hot press. The hot press consists of normal press adapted with two metal cylinders connected to electrical heaters. In the lower cylinder (similar to a tube) a vacuum pump is attached in one end and a metal grid in the other. When a FEP lm is placed over the grid the pump sucks the lm through the grid forming the bubbles which are then closed by another FEP lm that is compressed and fused by the upper cylinder. Using this technique, piezoelectrets were produced with piezoelectric coef cients of up to 500 pC/N. However, despite the improved characteristics of the samples, this technique has shown some manufacturing disadvantages, e.g., dif culty in controlling the temperature of the electrodes and in producing samples with identical bubble characteristics. Zhang, Hillenbrand and Sessler [12] conducted important research based on ferroelectrets formed by thermo-molding, whereby two hot metallic grids were pressed to both sides of a multilayer system composed of two PTFE lms with a FEP lm sandwiched between them, creating air bubbles on the external sides of the PTFE lms. With this technique, samples with piezoelectric coef cients exceeding 1000 pC/N were obtained. However, problems in producing bubbles with inhomogeneous shapes still persisted. A more stable piezoelectret with full control was presented recently by Alta m et al. [13], where two Te on FEP lms were laminated at elevated temperature together with a polytetra uoroethylene (PTFE) template in between. After the template was removed an open structure with tubular channels was created. Later when the FEP structure was charged piezoelectric coef cients over 150 pC/N was observed. Now to improve the production of thermo-formed ferroelectrets with closed voids, this paper proposes a new preindustrial process which allows for better control of the diameter, height and distribution of bubbles on the samples surface. This method involves a hot lamination process in which two polymeric lms are fused together. However, one of the lms is pre-molded into bubble shapes in a hydraulic

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Figure 3.

Schematic distribution of charge inside the bubbles.

C. Samples metallization and charging

Figure 1. (a) Set up for modeling the Te on FEP lms. (b) Molded Te on FEP lm after compression. (c) Transverse section of molded lm.

press. Another lm is then superposed on this pre-molded one and inserted into the lamination process. II. E XPERIMENTAL D ETAILS The proposed technique for producing ferroelectrets can be divided into four stages: modeling of one of the lms into dome shapes; fusion of this molded lm to another one to create the bubbles; metallization of electrodes on the set; and charging of the samples. A. Molding the lm into domes shapes The process of pre-molding one of the lms into dome shapes before the gluing process helped improve control of the bubble diameter and height. To perform the pre-molding, a hydraulic press was used to apply a pressure of up to 1.4 MPa, as depicted in the diagram in Fig. 1 (a). In the set, a Te on FEP lm with a thickness of 50 m is placed between a rubber plate with a Young modulus of 10.7 MPa and a 0.8 mm thick aluminum matrix containing circular holes spaced 5.5 mm from it center. After the set is fully compressed, the lm takes on the appearance of small domes, as shown in g. 1 (b) and in the cross section in g. 1 (c). B. Creating bubbles by fusing lms Following the pre-molding process, the molded lm with the aluminum matrix is covered with regular FEP lm, also 50 m thick. The set of lms and matrix are then fed into the hot lamination machine (Lassane model L280, made in Brazil), heated to a temperature of 330 C, according to the scheme in g. 2.

To conclude the preparation of the ferroelectret samples, circular aluminum electrodes 16 mm in diameter were evaporated on both external surfaces of the polymeric structure. The samples were charged by the impulse voltages method with a wave form of 1.2/50 s ramp and -2.76 kV peak. This voltage was applied three times to ensure the samples were fully charged. The setup used for charging followed the description given in [10]. However, normal direct contact charging or corona discharge can be used to charge the ferroelectrets [8, 14]. Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a transverse section of a charged sample. III. D IRECT PIEZOELECTRIC MEASUREMENTS The direct piezoelectric coef cient d33 of the samples was calculated based on equation (1) d33 = Q F (1)

where Q is the induced charge on the electrodes in pC and F is the strength, in N, applied to the sample. In this work, a small static force of 0.24 N was applied to the sample to ensure electrical contact. This force was superposed by a periodic force of 0.43 N at a frequency of 0.05 Hz. The induced charge Q on the electrodes was then measured with a Keithley 617 electrometer and the data recorded on a computer. IV. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSION As mentioned earlier, the method developed to produce piezoelectrets with bubbles allows for easy control of bubble shape simply by changing the diameters and shapes of the holes in the matrix. To demonstrate the versatility of the process, three samples containing bubbles with diameters of 2.0, 3.5 and 4.0 mm were prepared and are presented in g. 4. To demonstrate the piezoelectric response of a piezoelectret prepared by this technique, a 100 m thick Te on FEP structure was prepared containing bubbles with 4.0 mm in diameter, separated from each other by 5.5 mm (centercenter). The piezoelectric effect was measured according to the parameters described in the direct piezoelectric measurement section. Fig. 5 illustrates the charge variation as a function of time resulting from the periodic force, which yielded a piezoelectric coef cient of approximately 215 pC/N.

Figure 2.

Schematic representation of the lamination process.

FAPESP (S o Paulo State Research Support Foundation) and a CNPq (National Council for Scienti c and Technological Development). The German authors are indebted to the European Union for partly nancing the research. The research was also received partial nancial support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) within the PROBRAL project D/08/11608. R EFERENCES
[1] J. Lekkala and M. Paajanen, EMFi-New electret material for sensors and actuators 10th International Symposium on Electrets, ISE, p. 743-746, 1999. [2] R. Gerhard-Multhaupt, Less can be more - Holes in polymer lead to a new paradigm of piezoelectric materials for electret transducers, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., v. 9, p. 850-859, 2002. [3] S. Bauer, R. Gerhard-Multhaupt, G. M. Sessler, Ferroelectrets : Soft Electroactactive foams for transducers, Phys. Today, v. 57, p. 37-43, 2004. [4] X. Zhang, J. Hillenbrand and G. M. Sessler, Ferroelectrets with improved thermal stability made from fused uorocarbon layers, J. Appl. Phys., v. 101, p. 054114-1-8, 2007. [5] M. Wegener, W. Wirges, J. P. Dietrich, and R. Gerhard-Multhaupt, Polyethylene terephthalate (PETP) foams as ferroelectrets, IEEE International Symposium on Electrets, ISE, p. 28-30, 2005. [6] N. Behrendt, V. Altstadt, H. W. Schmidt, X. Zhang and G. M. Sessler, Development of porous polypropylene blends with NA11 particles and glass hollow spheres by biaxial stretching for electret applications, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., v. 13, p. 992-1000, 2006. [7] J. F. C. Windmill, A. Zorab, D. J. Bedwell, and D. Robert, Nanomechanical and electrical characterization of a new cellular electret sensoractuator, Nanotechnology, v. 19, p. 1-7, 2008. [8] X. Qiu, A. Mellinger, M. Wegener, W. Wirges and R. Gerhard, Barrier discharges in cellular polypropylene ferroelectrets: How do they in uence the electromechanical properties?, J. Appl. Phys., v. 101, p. 054114-1-7, 2007. [9] R. A. C. Alta m, C. Dias, L. G. Neto, H. C. Basso, C. Murakami, P. R. Veronese and E. F. Rodrigues, Piezoelectricity of multi-layers spacecharge electrets from Te on FEP lm with homogeneous voids distributed on its surface, IEEE Annual Report Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, CEIDP, p. 225-228, 2003. [10] R. A. C. Alta m, H. C. Basso, L. G. Neto, L. Lima, R. A. P. Alta m and C. V. Aquino, Piezoelectricity in multi-air voids electrets, IEEE Annual Report Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, CEIDP, p. 669-672, 2005. [11] R. C. A. Alta m, H. C. Basso, R. A. P. Alta m, L. Lima, C. V. Aquino, L. G. Neto and R. Gerhard-Multhaupt, Piezoelectrets from thermoformed bubble structures of uoropolymer-electret lms, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., v. 13, p. 979-985, 2006. [12] X. Zhang, J. Hillenbrand and G. M. Sessler, Thermaly stable uorocarbon ferroelectrets with high piezoelectric coef cient, Appl. Phys. AMater, v. 84, p. 139-142, 2006. [13] R. A. P. Alta m, X. Qiu, W. Wirges, R. Gerhard, R. A. C. Alta m, H. C. Basso, W. Jenninger and J. Wagner, Template-based uoroethylenepropylene piezoelectrets with tubular channels for transducer applications, J. Appl. Phys., v. 106, p. 014106, 2009. [14] J. Hillenbrand and G. M. Sessler, High-sensitivity piezoelectric microphones based on stacked cellular polymer lms (L), J. Acoust. Soc. Am., v. 116, p. 3267-3270, 2004.

Figure 4.

Piezoelectrets prepared with different bubble diamenters

Figure 5. force

Charge variations over time due to the application of periodic

V. C ONCLUSION A new process was presented for the production of thermoferroelectrets with good control of the cavities. This control was used to produce bubbles with different diameters and distributions over the samples surface, which produced satisfactory results, as shown in g. 4. The heights of the bubbles can be controlled by adjusting the force applied in the hydraulic press, but improvements are ongoing to control this force. Samples prepared by this process containing bubbles 4.0 mm in diameter spaced 5.5 mm apart demonstrated piezoelectric coef cients of up to 215 pC/N. Further research is ongoing to produce more reliable samples, since some bubbles seems to be affected by the lamination temperature. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The rst and the third authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support of the Brazilian research funding agencies