Piezoelectric Biomedical microelectromechanical systems for implantable energy harvesting applications

M A ZALAZAR

Simposio; 4th International Symposium on Energy Challenges and Mechanics (ECM4) - working on small scales; 2015

Nowadays it is in constant growing the interests of piezoelectric energy harvesting (EH) power microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). If the piezoelectric material is going to be implanted in the human body, an important requirement is the biocompatibility of the implant. In this regard, Aluminum Nitride (AlN) has emerged as an attractive alternative for use in biomedical MEMS (BioMEMS). Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD) is a promising material to be used in biomedical applications due to its extraordinary mulifunctionality. Since both UNCD and AlN films can be processed via photolithography processes used in MEMS, the integration of UNCD and AlN films provides the bases for developing a new generation of biocompatible BioMEMS. Research and development was conducted to produce implantable MEMS based EH devices: Pt/piezoelectric AlN/Pt layer heterostructure was grown and patterned on the UNCD membrane with a Ti adhesion layer. By applying voltages between the top and bottom Pt electrodes layers the piezoelectric AlN layer is energized. The feasibility of the fabrication of biocompatible AlN/UNCD based thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) structure for EH implantable applications has been demonstrated.