Custom Piezo Stack Fabrication for Scanning Probe Microscopy

Piezoelectric actuators are composed of precision ceramic materials that convert applied voltage directly into linear motion by physically deforming in the presence of an electric field. The high displacement precision, large force generation, and fast response time of piezoelectric actuators make them crucial to various applications in nanotechnology and precision engineering. For example, a scanning probe microscope (SPM) typically employs stacks of shear piezoelectric plates to translate a tiny sensor across a macroscopic distance to approach a sample. Although prefabricated piezo stacks are commercially available, they are typically costly to customize. Here we describe a streamlined laboratory procedure to reliably fabricate piezo stacks from soft lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezo ceramic plates. We designed a custom alignment fixture, which can be easily modified to fabricate stacks of varying sizes, to improve the efficiency and reproducibility of stack construction. We glue each plate sequentially, to minimize instability and misalignment throughout the fabrication process. Furthermore, we use interlayer copper mesh and EPO-TEK® H20E silver epoxy to ensure robust electrical attachment and stack height uniformity.