Electrical and electromechanical characterization of piezoelectric thin films in view of MEMS application

The electrical and electromechanical properties of piezoelectric thin films were measured using different measurement procedures including a new method which combines the measurement of both the effective longitudinal and transverse piezoelectric coefficients on the same sample under precisely defined homogeneous mechanical strain utilizing a 4-point bending setup. Stress and corresponding strain distributions in the film were verified by finite element simulations.