Piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems - Challenges and opportunities

Integration of materials other than silicon and its compounds into micromachined transducers is a rapidly emerging area of MEMS research technology. For example, future innovations and improvements in inertial sensors for navigation, high-frequency crystal oscillators and filters for wireless applications, microactuators for RF applications, chip-scale chemical analysis systems, and countless other applications can be significantly impacted by the successful miniaturization and integration of piezoelectric materials and subsystems onto silicon substrates. Piezoelectric materials are high energy density materials that scale favorably upon miniaturization. In this article, a cursory review of the fabrication technology for piezoelectric MEMS transducers is presented along with a discussion on the challenges and opportunities in the field.