Radiant Technologies:World Leaders in Ferroelectric IC Technology and Testers:Testers : Something New

Measuring Displacement

January 14, 2010

There has been an explosion of interest around the world in piezoelectric MEMs devices with a subsequent increase in requests to Radiant for displacement measurements using our testers. We embarked on a project to evaluate the available displacement sensors in the ranges that MEMs are expected to move: 1 micron down to 10 nanometers. Another category of displacement measurement starts at 10 nanometers and extends down to less than one Angstrom, i.e the movement of the surface of a thin ferroelectric or piezoelectric film capacitor when activated by a voltage. The first category we will refer to as piezoMEMs Actuation. The second category will be labeled Converse Piezoelectric Constant Measurement.

Radiant has developed its new Precision Displacement Test Stand and the Advanced Piezo Task for inexpensively measuring bulk and thin film piezoelectric properties in the lab. The Advanced Piezo Task is now part of the Vision Library. The PDTS is available for purchase. Both enable accurate measurements down to the resolution of the displacement meter being used to detect displacement.

We are conducting measurements of piezoelectric devices using different commercial displacement sensors. The application notes for each sensor is listed below. The original measurements, executed before the creation of the Precision Displacement Test Station or Advanced Piezo are linked at the bottom of the page.

Summary

Piezoelectric Testing Brochure

Displacement Sensor Operation Rev B

Application Note for Advanced Piezo Rev B

Application Note for the Precision Displacement Test Stand

Converse Piezoelectric Constant Measurement

Asylum AFM without Advanceced Piezo

Polytec Vibrometer using Advanced Piezo on the PDTS

piezoMEMs Actuation with Precision Displacement Test Stand

MTI Photonic Sensor using Advanced Piez on the PDTS