• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.96-99
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• 2006

In this research, a wafer-level transfer method of cantilever away on a conventional CMOS circuit has been developed for high density probe-based data storage. The transferred cantilevers were silicon nitride ($Si_3N_4$) cantilevers integrated with poly silicon heaters and piezoelectric sensors, called thermo-piezoelectric $Si_3N_4$ cantilevers. In this process, we did not use a SOI wafer but a conventional p-type wafer for the fabrication of the thermo-piezoelectric $Si_3N_4$ cantilever arrays. Furthermore, we have developed a very simple transfer process, requiring only one step of cantilever transfer process for the integration of the CMOS wafer and cantilevers. Using this process, we have fabricated a single thermo-piezoelectric $Si_3N_4$ cantilever, and recorded 65nm data bits on a PMMA film and confirmed a charge signal at 5nm of cantilever deflection. And we have successfully applied this method to transfer 34 by 34 thermo-piezoelectric $Si_3N_4$ cantilever arrays on a CMOS wafer. We obtained reading signals from one of the cantilevers.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.160-165
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• 2015

Lead-free piezoelectric materials have been actively studied to substitute for conventional PZT based solid solution, $Pb(Zr_xTi_{1-x}O_3)$, which occurs unavoidable PbO during the sintering process. Among them, Bismuth Sodium Titanate, $Na_{0.5}Bi_{0.5}TiO_3$ (abbreviated as NBT) based solid solution is attracted for the one of excellent candidates which shows the strong ferroelectricity, Curie temperature (Tc), remnant polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec). Especially, the solid solution of rhombohedral phase NBT with tetragonal perovskite phase has a rhombohedral - tetragonal morphotropic phase boundary. Modified NBT with tetragonal perovskite at the region of MPB can be applied for high frequency ultrasonic application because of not only its low permittivity, high electrocoupling factor and high mechanical strength, but also effective piezoelectric activity by poling. In this study, solid state ceramic processing of NBT and modified NBT, $(Na_{0.5}Bi_{0.5})_{0.93}Ba_{0.7}TiO_3$ (abbreviated as NBT-7BT), at the region of MPB using 7 % $BaTiO_3$ as a tetragonal perovskite was introduced and the structure between NBT and NBT-7BT were analyzed using rietveld refinement. Also, the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of NBT-7BT such as permittivity, piezoelectric constant, polarization hysteresis and strain hysteresis loop were compared with those of pure NBT.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.135-150
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• 2015

Large concrete structures are prone to cracks and damages over time from human usage, weathers, and other environmental attacks such as flood, earthquakes, and hurricanes. The health of the concrete structures should be monitored regularly to ensure safety. A reliable method of real time communications can facilitate more frequent structural health monitoring (SHM) updates from hard to reach positions, enabling crack detections of embedded concrete structures as they occur to avoid catastrophic failures. By implementing an unconventional mode of communication that utilizes guided stress waves traveling along the concrete structure itself, we may be able to free structural health monitoring from costly (re-)installation of communication wires. In stress-wave communications, piezoelectric transducers can act as actuators and sensors to send and receive modulated signals carrying concrete status information. The new generation of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based smart aggregates cause multipath propagation in the homogeneous concrete channel, which presents both an opportunity and a challenge for multiple sensors communication. We propose a time reversal based pulse position modulation (TR-PPM) communication for stress wave communication within the concrete structure to combat multipath channel dispersion. Experimental results demonstrate successful transmission and recovery of TR-PPM using stress waves. Compared with PPM, we can achieve higher data rate and longer link distance via TR-PPM. Furthermore, TR-PPM remains effective under low signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. This work also lays the foundation for implementing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) stress wave communication networks in concrete channels.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.61-67
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• 1997

Piezoelectric gyroscopes are the devices to measure angular rotational velocity of a system with respect to an inertial frame of reference means of the Coriolis principle. Most of current piezoelectric gyroscopes detect rotational velocity about a single axis of rotation. This paper describes development of a new dual axial gyroscope made out of the piezoelectric ceramic, PZT, which can overcome the limitation of the current single axial type. The validity of the new structure is checked through finite element analysis. Based on the design, an experimental sample of the sensor is fabricated and its performance is discussed in comparison with the theoretical expectation. The resutls show that the present gyroscope is capable of measuring the rotational velocity over two orthogonal axes simultaneously with good enough sensitivity and distinction between the two axial components of the rotation.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.583-590
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• 2004

The autofocus is one of the important processes in the automated vision inspection or measurements using optical microscopes, because it influences the measuring accuracy. In this paper, we used the confocal microscope configuration based on not a pinhole but a single-mode optical fiber. A single mode fiber has the functions of source and detector by applying the reciprocal scheme. As a result, we acquired a simple system configuration and easy alignment of the optical axis. Also, we embodied a fast autofocus system by acquiring the focus error signal through a source modulation technique. The source modulation technique can effectively reduce physical disturbances compared with objective lens modulation, and it is easily applicable to general optical microscopes. The focus error signal was measured with respect to the modulation amplitude, reflectance of the specimen and inclination angle of the measuring surface. The performance of the proposed autofocus system was verified through autofocusing flat mirror surface. In addition, we confirmed that source modulation rarely degrades the depth resolution by the comparison between the FWHMs of axial response curves.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.260-268
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• 2009

As a basic study to develop a high sensitive biosensor using film bulk acoustic resonator, the mathematical model for analyzing the resonance characteristics of bulk acoustic resonator with acoustic Bragg reflectors was investigated. The simulation results due to the number of acoustic Bragg reflectors with low and high acoustic impedance materials were compared with the experimental results for 1, 2.25 and 5 MHz of PZT based bulk acoustic resonators with various acoustic Bragg reflectors. At the fabricated bulk acoustic resonator with an odd number of acoustic Bragg reflectors, low and high acoustic impedance materials in sequence under the bottom electrode showed better resonance characteristics than even number of acoustic Bragg reflectors. The changes of resonance frequencies due to the increase of number of acoustic Bragg reflectors by simulation and experiment, respectively showed approximately similar tendency but some differences in input impedance between the experiment and simulation were found. The derived mathematical model for describing the resonance characteristics of the bulk acoustic resonator with acoustic Bragg reflector will be available for analyzing the design parameters for development of biosensor using bulk acoustic resonator.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.62-71
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• 2009

In this paper, an improved drive method of piezoelectric PZT stack actuator for micro-positioning system is proposed and the performances are evaluated. This type of amplifier is based on switching technology efficiently handling the arbitrary regenerative energy from the piezoelectric actuator. The conventional voltage-feedback control method has the THD of -32dB (${\approx}2.5%$) with 100mHz sinusoidal reference, which means that the positioning performance in linearity degrades due to the hysteretic relationship between actuator voltage and the displacement. This paper proposed an improved charge-controlling method, which utilizes differential information of charge reference instead of integrating the actuator's current. The current waveform has THD under -40dBV (=1%) and the displacement waveform nearly -52dB (${\approx}0.25%$), which means that the positioning performance is very excellent. Finally, another method of the displacement feedback control has better performance than the voltage method, however there exists a limitation in performance of the system.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.07c
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• pp.1621-1622
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• 2006

This paper presents the effect of driving waveform for piezoelectric bend mode inkjet printhead with optimized mechanical design. Experimental and theoretical studies on the applied driving waveform versus jetting characteristic s were performed. The inkjet head has been designed to maximize the droplet velocity, minimize voltage response of the actuator and optimize the firing frequency to eject ink droplet. The head design was carried out by using mechanical simulation. The printhead has been fabricated with Si(100) and SOI wafers by MEMS process and silicon direct bonding method. To investigate how performance of the piezoelectric ceramic actuator influences on droplet diameter and droplet velocity, the method of stroboscopy was used. Also we observed the movement characteristics of PZT actuator with LDV(Laser Doppler Vibrometer) system, oscilloscope and dynamic signal analyzer. Missing nozzles caused by bubbles in chamber were monitored by their resonance frequency. Using the water based ink of viscosity of 4.8 cps and surface tension of 0.025N/m, it is possible to eject stable droplets up to 20kHz, 4.4m/s and above 8pL at the different applied driving waveforms.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.766-772
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• 2012

Spring supported piezoelectric cantilever structures (SPCS) were fabricated for vibration-based energy harvester application. We selected four elastic springs (A, B, C, and D type) as cantilever's supporter, each elastic spring has a different spring constant (S). The C type of SPCS ($S_C$: 4,649 N/m) showed a extremely low resonance frequency of 81 Hz along with the highest power output of 38.5 mW while the A type of SPCS ($S_A$: 40,629 N/m) didn't show a resonance frequency while. Therefore, it is considered that the lower spring constant lead to a lower resonance frequency of the SPCS. In addition, a tip mass (18 g) at one end of the SPCS could further reduce the resonance frequency without heavy degradation of power output.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.418-424
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• 2008

The PZT based piezoelectric thick films prepared by screen printing method have been mainly used as a functional material for MEMS applications due to their compatibility of MEMS process. However the screen printed thick films generally reveal poor electrical and mechanical properties because of their porous microstructure. To improve microstructure we mixed attrition milled powder with ball milled powder of 0.01Pb$(Mg_{1/2}W_{1/2})O_3$-0.41Pb$(Ni_{1/3}Nb_{2/3})O_3$-$0.35PbTiO_3$-$0.23PbZrO_3$+0.1 wt% ${Y_2}{O_3}$+1.5 wt% ZnO composition. By mixing 25 % of attrition milled powder and 75 % of ball milled powder, the broadest particle size distribution was obtained, leading to a dense thick film with crack-free microstructure and improved dielectric properties. The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the film was in wellcrystallized perovskite phase. The remanent polarization was increased from $13.7{\mu}C/cm^2$ to $23.3{\mu}C/cm^2$ at the addition of 25 % attrition milled powder.