Development of Textured Piezoelectric Ceramics via Fortify's DLP AM Platform

Piezoelectric ceramics with substantially aligned grains (e.g., textured ceramics) are known to exhibit superior properties (i.e., higher gain, lower Q factor, etc.) relative to PCs of the same chemistry but with randomly oriented grains. Performance commensurate with textured PCs is required for improving the performance of undersea sensing operations such as Mine Counter Measure tools and Synthetic Aperture Sonar. However, the implementation of textured PCs remains limited due to processing complexities. Traditional tape casting routes are not well suited to producing bulk architectures, while emerging techniques like additive manufacturing are unable to produce the microstructural complexity required to realize effective texturing in the sintered state. Fortify’s Fluxprint technology combines the high-resolution bulk patterning incumbent with digital light processing additive manufacturing with magnetic field assisted particle level control. This technology has been used to commercially produce polymeric composites with architected macro- and micro- structures. To date, we have successfully leveraged Fluxprint to pattern microstructures both with ferromagnetic and ferroelectric particles (with the proper interfacial engineering), and we have demonstrated success polymerizing resin laden with dark materials. Furthermore, Fluxprint has been used in conjunction with highly viscous (> 5k cP), highly loaded ( > 50 vol%) slurries to create nearly-fully dense sintered ceramics with complex architecture. Our technology, and our experience engineering multiphase photopolymer suspensions, suggests we are well positioned to create compelling demonstrations of piezoelectric ceramic composites with aligned barium titanate seed domains as precursors to textured piezoelectric ceramic composites.   Specifically, in Phase 1 (base and option) we will leverage our expertise to create component systems of the piezoelectric ceramic alone in a model photoresin, align the seed crystals (barium titanate) alone in a model photoresin, and then ultimately combine both resin systems into a piezoelectric ceramic, aligned barium titanate, polymer composite. If successfully realized, these composites would represent a robust starting point for realizing sintered and textured piezoelectric ceramic transducers with the requisite performance for next generation transducer technology.