Piezoelectric Testing

Specialists in Piezoelectric Testing

Radiant Technologies, Inc. specializes in the measurement of electrical and piezoelectric properties of non-linear materials. The Piezoelectric Task captures a sample's displacement as a function of voltage profile along with the sample's polarization response. An external displacement measurement instrument must be attached to a Radiant Precision Test System to make this measurement. All of the Radiant testers are equipped with a high-impedance voltage input to capture the output of a displacement sensor. Every Vision measurement task will collect data from that sensor input simultaneously with the measurement being executed.

Radiant's test systems work easily with displacement sensors which include:

  1. non-contact optical sensors;
  2. laser vibrometers; and
  3. atomic force microscopes
  4. Radiant's piezoelectric bundles

Radiant's D33 Bulk Ceramic Piezoelectric Test Bundles

Heated Bulk Ceramic D33 Piezoelectric/Pyroelectric Test Bundle 230°C - The bundle includes a Piezoelectric Displacement Sensor, Heated Piezoelectric/Pyroelectric Measurement Test Fixture, and Advanced Piezoelectric Software. The Bulk Piezoelectric/Pyroelectric Test Bundle allows samples to internally be heated to 230C in a self-contained test fixture. The heating unit is built-in to the sample holder, so no additional temperature chamber is necessary. The bundle's simple user interface is controlled by Radiant's fully automated Vision Data Acquisition Software

Bulk Ceramic D33 Piezoelectric Test Bundle - The Bulk Piezoelectric Test Bundle is a cost effective option for researchers measuring piezoelectric displacements on the order of one micron or larger using Radiant testers. The high voltage displacement test fixture provides a safe operating environment for testing at high voltages and is rated to 10kV. The fiber optic sensor detects the amplitude of non-coherent light reflected from the sample surface to determine the distance from the sensor wand to the sample surface.

Radiant's Thin Film Piezoelectric Bundle Options

Radiant's Thin Film Piezoelectric Bundles

Radiant offers two different Thin Film Piezoelectric Test Bundles that accurately determine coefficients for piezoelectric thin films. These tools enable the characterization and control of piezoelectric films during product development and manufacturing.

Polytec/Radiant Thin Film Piezoelectric Test Bundle - NLV

A Polytec Laser Vibrometer attached to a Radiant Test System accurately measure the piezoelectric coefficients (d33 and e31) of thin piezoelectric films deposited on cantilevers and membranes or clamped to a substrate. e31 can be measured with the addition of Radiant’s e31 Test Fixture.

Radiant’s PiezoMEMS Analyzer, Multiferroic II and Precision LCII Testers use 18-bit ADC’s, have 76 microvolt per bit resolution, and exhibit a noise floor of~300µV for a single pass.

A Radiant Test System Combined with a Laser Interferometer can reach 0.2 Ångstrom (0.02nm) resolution in d33 piston motion.

The Thin film Piezoelectric Test Bundle -e31

A Radiant Tester combined with the with Thin film Piezoelectric Test Bundle (e31) measures the piezoelectric coefficients (the e31, d31 and e33) of thin piezoelectric films deposited on cantilevers. Voltages applied to the piezoelectric film bend the substrate in various directions. The displacement is captured by the photonic sensor (built-in to the Thin film Piezoelectric Test Bundle-e31) which is configured to capture the motion of the cantilever tip.

Photonic sensors generally have minimum spot diameters of 0.3mm to 3mm. Only large flat structures can be measured with a photonic sensor.

The Thin Film Piezoelectric Test Bundle –31 accommodates the following cantilever sizes.

  1. With a photonic sensor for 4 Inch/ 72mm cantilevers (4")
  2. With a photonic sensor for 2 Inch/42mm cantilevers (2")

Precision Nano Displacement Sensor

Precision Nano Displacement Sensor (PNDS) - Radiant’s Precision Nano Displacement System is a modified Atomic ForceR Microscope designed to capture the large signal piezoelectric butterfly loops of piezoelectric and ferroelectric capacitors. It does so by use of a Light Lever where a fixed laser reflects a beam off of a thin cantilever in contact with the sample surface.