Recent advances in ZnO nanostructures and thin films for biosensor applications: review.

https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/264501/1/Fu_et_al-2017-Progress_in_Material_Science-VoR.pdf

Advances in piezoelectric thin films for acoustic biosensors, acoustofluidics and lab-on-chip applications

Recent developments on the preparation and application of ZnO films for acoustic wave-based microfluidics and biosensors are reviewed in this paper. High quality and strongly textured ZnO thin films can be prepared using many technologies, among which RF magnetron sputtering is most commonly used. This paper reviews the deposition of ZnO film and summarizes the factors influencing the microstructure, texture and piezoelectric properties of deposited ZnO films. ZnO acoustic wave devices can be successfully used as biosensors, based on the biomolecule recognition using highly sensitive shear horizontal and Love-wave surface acoustic waves, as well as film bulk acoustic resonator devices. The acoustic wave generated on the ZnO acoustic devices can induce significant acoustic streaming, small scale fluid mixing, pumping, ejection and atomization, depending on the wave mode, amplitude and surface condition. The potential to fabricate an integrated lab-on-a-chip diagnostic system based on these ZnO acoustic wave technologies is also discussed.

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Recent developments on ZnO films for acoustic wave based bio-sensing and microfluidic applications: a review

This paper reviews deposition, integration, and device fabrication of PbZr/sub x/Ti/sub 1-x/O/sub 3/ (PZT) films for applications in micro-electromechanical systems. An ultrasonic micromotor is described as an example. A summary of the published data on piezoelectric properties is given. The figures of merit for various applications are discussed. Some considerations and results on operation, reliability, and depolarization of PZT thin films are presented. The state of the art allows some preliminary conclusions.

PZT thin films for microsensors and actuators: Where do we stand?

Piezoelectric materials play a crucial role in a large number of devices and applications modern society would not like to miss. Mobile phones and ultrasonic imaging are just the most prominent ones. Since two decades, miniaturization of mechanical devices in silicon technology is a major research direction in engineering known under name of MEMS, which stands for micro-electro-mechanical systems. Piezoelectricity fits very well into this concept and was expected right from the beginning to play its role in MEMS. The breakthrough was made with RF filters in mobile phones working on the principle of standing thickness waves in AlN films. What counts here is acoustic quality and stability. The force champion among piezoelectric thin film materials, Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 gave more problems in processing, and requires more patience to meet requirements and needs for a mass applications. It seems, however, that the breakthrough is imminent. This article attempts to give an overview of the field, highlighting recent achievements, introduce operation principles, and describe some applications.

Recent Progress in Materials Issues for Piezoelectric MEMS

First results on label-free detection of DNA and protein molecules using a novel integrated sensor technology based on gravimetric detection principles.

Solidly mounted film bulk acoustic resonators (FBAR) operating at 850 MHz in the shear vibration mode have been fabricated. C-axis inclined zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films realized by modified reactive magnetron sputtering were used. Coupling factors k/sup 2/ of 1.7% and Q-factors of 312 were determined in air. Q-factors of 192 were measured in water, making these devices attractive for sensing applications in liquids, e.g., biosensing.

Solidly mounted ZnO shear mode film bulk acoustic resonators for sensing applications in liquids

In this paper the feasibility of thin film bulk acoustic resonators (FBAR), for applications in bio- and gas-detection, is shown for the first time. Solidly mounted, ZnO FBARs with frequencies around 2 GHz have been fabricated on silicon substrates. The dependence of the FBAR mass sensitivity on the design of the layer stack has been investigated exhibiting an optimized sensitivity of 2.5 Hz cm/sup 2//pg. Using a common protein assay the capability of detecting bio-molecules has successfully been proved. Gas sensing has been demonstrated by coating the FBAR with a humidity absorbing polymer. A strong non-linear dependence of the humidity sensitivity on the thickness of the polymer coating has been found. When the polymer thickness is far less than the acoustic wavelength, a pure mass dependent response occurs, leading to a negative shift in resonance frequency. Moreover, as the polymer thickness becomes significant, acoustic influences affect the response and the shift becomes large and positive. A sensitivity to humidity of up to two orders of magnitude higher than that of comparably coated quartz crystal micro-balances has been observed.

Novel integrated FBAR sensors: a universal technology platform for bio- and gas-detection

Thin film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) based on Pb(Zr x Ti (1− x ) )O 3 (PZT) with varying compositions, ranging from x =0.25 to 0.6, were fabricated to investigate hysteresis-like dependencies of the resonance frequency and electro-mechanical coupling constant on bias voltage. The resonators, formed by a simple sandwich structure consisting of bottom electrode, PZT thin film and top electrode, arranged on a planar acoustic mirror, were designed to give a resonance frequency of about 2 GHz. PZT thin films were deposited in a planar multi target sputtering system using three metallic targets in a reactive Ar/O 2 mixture. For low Zr-content, where PZT is grown in the tetragonal phase, the parallel resonance frequencies are strongly dependent on the applied electric field, while the series resonance frequency is practically unaffected. This behaviour is completely different for rhombohedral PZT at higher Zr-content. Here the series resonance frequency becomes strongly field dependent, which can be attributed to 109°/71° domain switching. As a potential application based on the observed strong field dependence of the acoustic properties, a bandwidth-tuneable or programmable RF filter based on PZT FBARs is proposed.

Electro-acoustic hysteresis behaviour of PZT thin film bulk acoustic resonators

A planar multi target sputtering approach was used to deposit self polarized PZT films on TiO2/Pt bottom electrodes for the use in thin film pyroelectric IR detector arrays By using elevated substrate temperatures of about 450°C “in situ” growth of tetragonal PZT could be achieved The films exhibited pyroelectric currents without poling The pyroelectric coefficient was 2×10−4 C/m2K, the dielectric constant was 300 and dielectric loss tan δ was 001 The self polarization disappears after heating the sample to 600°C Stresses were studied in the thin film processing for the bottom electrode and the PZT film The TiO2/Pt electrode is under high tensile stress of 900 MPa after preparation PZT has a small compressive stress of -60 MPa, the whole TiO2/Pt/PZT stack has a tensile stress of +80 MPa This low stress level together with the self polarization and the good electrical properties makes the films suitable for the use in pyroelectric detector arrays

Robert Primig

Papers

First results on label-free detection of DNA and protein molecules using a novel integrated sensor technology based on gravimetric detection principles.

Solidly mounted ZnO shear mode film bulk acoustic resonators for sensing applications in liquids

Novel integrated FBAR sensors: a universal technology platform for bio- and gas-detection

Electro-acoustic hysteresis behaviour of PZT thin film bulk acoustic resonators

Deposition of self-polarized PZT films by planar multi-target sputtering