A piezoelectric device has a layered structure in which at least a first electrode, a plastic layer, an orientation control layer, a piezoelectric layer, and a second electrode are stacked, wherein the orientation control layer is amorphous, and the piezoelectric layer with a thickness of 20 nm to 250 nm is provided over the orientation control layer, the piezoelectric layer having a wurtzite crystal structure, and wherein the orientation control layer and the piezoelectric layer are provided between the first electrode and the second electrode.

In a method for sputter depositing an additive-containing aluminium nitride film containing an additive element like Sc or Y, a first layer of the additive-containing aluminium nitride film is deposited onto a substrate disposed within a chamber by pulsed DC reactive sputtering. A second layer of the additive-containing aluminium nitride film is deposited onto the first layer by pulsed DC reactive sputtering. The second layer has the same composition as the first layer. A gas or gaseous mixture is introduced into the chamber when depositing the first layer. A gaseous mixture comprising nitrogen gas and an inert gas is introduced into the chamber when depositing the second layer. The percentage of nitrogen gas in the flow rate (in sccm) when depositing the first layer is greater than that when depositing the second layer.

A method for manufacturing a piezoelectric actuator (21 a) as a piezoelectric element includes: an electrode forming step of forming a lower electrode (24) on a base body (27) including at least a support substrate (22); a film forming step of forming a piezoelectric thin film (25) on the lower electrode (24); a patterning step of patterning the piezoelectric thin film (25) by removing a part of the piezoelectric thin film (25); and a polishing step of polishing the support substrate (22). The polishing step is performed before the patterning step. In the film forming step, the piezoelectric thin film (25) is formed such that a ratio of the peak intensity of a pyrochlore phase to the sum of the peak intensities of (100) orientation, (110) orientation, and (111) orientation of a perovskite phase, obtained by 2/ measurement of X-ray diffraction, is 100 ppm or less.

A piezoelectric resonator device having a sandwich structure is provided, which is stably bonded to an external element. In the piezoelectric resonator device 1, at least a vibrating part 21 of a piezoelectric substrate 2 is sealed by a first sealing member 3 and a second sealing member 4. The piezoelectric substrate 2 includes: the vibrating part 21; and an external frame part 23 that is thicker than the vibrating part 21 and that surrounds the outer periphery of the vibrating part 21. External electrodes 31 to be connected to an external element 5 are provided on at least one of the first sealing member 3 and the second sealing member 4. The external element 5 is connected to the external electrodes 31 at least on the external frame part 23 of the piezoelectric substrate 2.

A piezoelectric material is described. The piezoelectric material comprises aluminum nitride (AlN) doped with ytterbium (Yb), an atomic percentage of Yb in the AlN being greater than or equal to approximately 10.0% and less than or equal to approximately 27.0%. Piezoelectric layers comprising the piezoelectric material may be used in bulk acoustic wave (BAW) acoustic resonators, and surface acoustic wave (SAW) acoustic resonators. The BAW acoustic resonators and SAW acoustic resonators can be used in a variety of applications.

The present invention relates to a zinc oxide-based piezoelectric device, utilizable both as a sensor and as an actuator. More in particular, the present invention relates to a piezoelectric device (1, 101) comprising at least two carbon fibre crossed yarns (2a, 2b; 102a, 102b), at the intersection of which a zinc oxide layer (3, 103) in nanorod form is arranged, wherein an end (4a, 4b) of each of said yarns (2a, 2b; 102a, 102b) is connected to an operative unit (5).

A method of depositing a thin film of lead titanate (PTO), lead zirconate (PZO) or lead zirconate titanate (PZT) comprising depositing a PTO, PZO or PZT layer upon a substrate whereby growth occurs primarily due to self-limited surface chemisorption of pulsed chemical vapor, and annealing the PTO, PZO, or PZT layer and substrate.

A subtractive forming method that includes providing a material stack including a samarium and selenium containing layer and an aluminum containing layer in direct contact with the samarium and selenium containing layer. The samarium component of the samarium and selenium containing layer of the exposed portion of the material stack is etched with an etch chemistry comprising citric acid and hydrogen peroxide that is selective to the aluminum containing layer. The hydrogen peroxide reacts with the aluminum containing layer to provide an oxide etch protectant surface on the aluminum containing layer, and the citric acid etches samarium selectively to the oxide etch protectant surface. Thereafter, a remaining selenium component of is removed by elevating a temperature of the selenium component.

A piezoelectric ceramic sputtering target containing a perovskite type oxide represented by chemical formula (I) of ABO.sub.3 as a main component, wherein the component A of the chemical formula (I) contains at least K (potassium) and/or Na (sodium), the component B of the chemical formula (I) contains at least Nb (niobium), the piezoelectric ceramic sputtering target is composed of a plurality of crystal grains; and the average particle diameter of the crystal grains is larger than 3 m and not larger than 30 m.

A micromechanic structure includes a substrate, an adhesion layer arranged on the substrate, a first metal layer arranged on the adhesion layer, a ferroelectric layer arranged on the first metal layer and including lead zirconate titanate, and a second metal layer arranged on the ferroelectric layer, wherein the lead concentration of the ferroelectric layer decreases in a stepped manner with increasing distance from the first metal layer such that the ferroelectric layer includes a plurality of partial layers in which the lead concentration is respectively uniform.