Piezoelectric film, piezoelectric module, and method of manufacturing piezoelectric film

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11529649-B2
Application number	US-201816222100-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2018
Priority date	Dec 18, 2017
Publication date	Dec 20, 2022
Grant date	Dec 20, 2022

Abstract

A piezoelectric film includes a substrate having flexibility, and at least two piezoelectric elements provided to the substrate so as to be arranged at intervals of a first dimension along a first direction, the piezoelectric elements are each configured by stacking a first electrode film, a piezoelectric film made of an inorganic material, and a second electrode film along a thickness direction of the substrate, and an area between the piezoelectric elements adjacent to each other along the first direction forms a vibrational region which can be displaced in the thickness direction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A piezoelectric film comprising:
a substrate having flexibility, the substrate including a first layer and a second layer that are laminated to each other; and
at least two piezoelectric elements provided to the substrate so as to be arranged at intervals of a first dimension along a first direction, the at least two piezoelectric elements being directly adjacent to each other,
wherein the at least two piezoelectric elements are each configured by stacking a first electrode film, a piezoelectric layer made of an inorganic material, and a second electrode film along a thickness direction of the substrate,
an area of the substrate between the piezoelectric elements directly adjacent to each other along the first direction forms a vibrational region which can be displaced in the thickness direction, and
a slit groove having a predetermined depth dimension along the thickness direction is disposed at a center of the vibrational region in the first direction of the substrate along a second direction intersecting the first direction, the slit groove penetrating the first layer and exposing an upper surface of the second layer.

2. The piezoelectric film according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least two piezoelectric elements are arranged along the first direction at intervals of the first dimension.

3. The piezoelectric film according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least two piezoelectric elements arranged along the first direction define an element column, and a plurality of the element columns are arranged along a second direction that intersects the first direction,
the at least two piezoelectric elements in the element column disposed (i+1)-th in the second direction overlap respective vibrational regions disposed between the at least two piezoelectric elements in the element column disposed i-th in the second direction, and
the at least two piezoelectric elements in the element column disposed (i+2)-th in the second direction overlap respective piezoelectric elements in the element column disposed i-th in the second direction.

4. The piezoelectric film according to claim 3 , wherein
i-th piezoelectric elements in the second direction and (i+2)-th piezoelectric elements in the second direction are arranged with a distance of the first dimension.

5. The piezoelectric film according to claim 1 , wherein
the substrate includes
a first substrate made of resin, and
a second substrate formed of the first layer and the second layer stacked on the first substrate, at least one of the first layer and the second layer including an oxide film,

the at least two piezoelectric elements are provided to the second substrate, and
a thickness in the thickness direction of the second substrate and the at least two piezoelectric elements is equal to or smaller than 5 μm.

6. The piezoelectric film according to claim 1 , wherein
first electrode films of a plurality of the piezoelectric elements are connected to each other, and
second electrode films of a plurality of the piezoelectric elements are connected to each other.

7. A piezoelectric module comprising:
the piezoelectric film according to claim 1 ; and
a control section adapted to control the piezoelectric film.

8. A piezoelectric module comprising:
the piezoelectric film according to claim 2 ; and
a control section adapted to control the piezoelectric film.

9. A piezoelectric module comprising:
the piezoelectric film according to claim 3 ; and
a control section adapted to control the piezoelectric film.

10. A piezoelectric module comprising:
the piezoelectric film according to claim 4 ; and
a control section adapted to control the piezoelectric film.

11. A piezoelectric module comprising:
the piezoelectric film according to claim 5 ; and
a control section adapted to control the piezoelectric film.

12. A piezoelectric module comprising:
the piezoelectric film according to claim 6 ; and
a control section adapted to control the piezoelectric film.

13. The piezoelectric module according to claim 7 , wherein
the control section inputs a predetermined drive signal to a plurality of the piezoelectric elements at a same timing.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Kojima Chikara
• Suzuki Hironori
• Osawa Eiji
• Ohashi Koji

Classifications

• A61B8/4488

  the transducer being a phased array · CPC title

• B06B1/0207

  Driving circuits (specially adapted for particular applications, see the relevant subclass, e.g. G01; circuits for steering transducer arrays G10K11/34; basic circuits H03) · CPC title

• B06B1/0622 Primary

  on one surface · CPC title

• G10K9/125

  with a plurality of active elements · CPC title

• H01L41/042

  Electricity · mapped topic