3D-Printing Piezoelectric Composite with Honeycomb Structure for Ultrasonic Devices

Yushun Zeng; Laiming Jiang; Yizhe Sun; Yang Yang; Yi Quan; Shuang Wei; Gengxi Lu; Runze Li; Jiahui Rong; Yong Chen; Qifa Zhou

doi:10.3390/mi11080713

Micromachines (Jul 2020)

3D-Printing Piezoelectric Composite with Honeycomb Structure for Ultrasonic Devices

Yushun Zeng,
Laiming Jiang,
Yizhe Sun,
Yang Yang,
Yi Quan,
Shuang Wei,
Gengxi Lu,
Runze Li,
Jiahui Rong,
Yong Chen,
Qifa Zhou

Affiliations

Yushun Zeng: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Laiming Jiang: Roski Eye Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
Yizhe Sun: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Yang Yang: Department of Mechanical Engineering, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USA
Yi Quan: Roski Eye Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
Shuang Wei: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Gengxi Lu: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Runze Li: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Jiahui Rong: Department of Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Yong Chen: Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Qifa Zhou: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11080713
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 11, no. 8
p. 713

Abstract

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Piezoelectric composites are considered excellent core materials for fabricating various ultrasonic devices. For the traditional fabrication process, piezoelectric composite structures are mainly prepared by mold forming, mixing, and dicing-filing techniques. However, these techniques are limited on fabricating shapes with complex structures. With the rapid development of additive manufacturing (AM), many research fields have applied AM technology to produce functional materials with various geometric shapes. In this study, the Mask-Image-Projection-based Stereolithography (MIP-SL) process, one of the AM (3D-printing) methods, was used to build BaTiO3-based piezoelectric composite ceramics with honeycomb structure design. A sintered sample with denser body and higher density was achieved (i.e., density obtained 5.96 g/cm3), and the 3D-printed ceramic displayed the expected piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties using the complex structure (i.e., piezoelectric constant achieved 60 pC/N). After being integrated into an ultrasonic device, the 3D-printed component also presents promising material performance and output power properties for ultrasound sensing (i.e., output voltage reached 180 mVpp). Our study demonstrated the effectiveness of AM technology in fabricating piezoelectric composites with complex structures that cannot be fabricated by dicing-filling. The approach may bring more possibilities to the fabrication of micro-electromechanical system (MEMS)-based ultrasonic devices via 3D-printing methods in the future.

Published in Micromachines

ISSN: 2072-666X (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Technology: Mechanical engineering and machinery
Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/micromachines

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