Ambient humidity significantly accelerates degradation of PZT films in microelectromechanical systems; the cause of such degradation is under debate. Here it is shown that the primary driving force for PZT degrading in humid conditions is coupled to the electrochemical activity of the system towards...

The number of application areas for piezoelectric micro electromechanical systems based on PZT have increased rapidly over the years. Thus, to continue the development towards commercial deployment, characterizing lifetime and reliability during operation in realistic and harsh environments is impor...

Lead Zirconate Titanate (Pb(Zrx,Ti1−x )O3) is, due to its high piezoresponse, widely used in piezoelectric Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (piezoMEMS) such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and actuators. However, since PZT is highly sensitive to humidity, devices tend to suffer severe degradation when...

Bimorphly actuated piezoelectric thin films offer an efficient low-power route for generating microelectromechanical motion compared to e.g. electrostatic or thermo-mechanical actuation principles [1]. This is since a large effective in-plane stress can be generated by applying relatively low voltag...