Susan Trolier-McKinstry

Professor of Ceramic Science and Engineering

Director, W. M. Keck Smart Materials Integration Laboratory

Director, Ben Franklin Technology PArtners Center of Excellence in Piezoelectric Materials & Devices (CPMD)

N-227 MSC Bldg.

Penn State University

University Park, PA 16802

Phone: (814) 863-8348

FAX: (814) 865-7173

E-mail: Susan Trolier-McKinstry

Education:

• Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, 1992, (Ceramic Science)
• M.S., The Pennsylvania State University, 1987 (Ceramic Science)
• B.S., The Pennsylvania State University, 1987 (honors), (Ceramic Science and Engineering)

Research Interests:

• Dielectric and Piezoelectric Thin Films
• Microelectromechanical Systems
• Nonlinearity in Ferroelectrics
• Spectroscopic Ellipsometry
• Texture in Piezoelectric Ceramics

The research activities in Susan Trolier-McKinstry’s group revolve around the processing and characterization of bulk and thin film electroceramics. The group works both to probe the fundamental mechanisms that control the magnitude of the achievable properties and to tackle the integration issues associated with incorporating new materials into devices. Dielectric thin films are of interest for on- and off-chip decoupling capacitors, as well as tunable components. Prof. Trolier-McKinstry’s group emphasizes the development of a wide range of dielectrics covering the permittivity range from 30 to 3000. Recent work has emphasized the development of temperature stable tunable dielectrics in the bismuth zinc niobate and silver tantalate niobate families. Reduction of process temperatures has also been a major focus. In the piezoelectric films area, Prof. Trolier-McKinstry’s group has concentrated on the factors that control the magnitude of the available piezoelectric response. It was demonstrated that domain wall contributions to the properties, which are important in bulk piezoelectrics, are very heavily clamped in films. In order to increase the available piezoelectric coefficients, highly oriented and epitaxial films of domain engineered perovskites have been developed. In addition, piezoelectric films have been incorporated as sensing and actuating elements in microelectromechanical systems, including accelerometers, pumps, switches, adaptive optics components, and ultrasound systems. The interest in texture development to improve electromechanical response also extends to bulk piezoelectrics. Joint programs with Prof. Messing have demonstrated that templated grain growth can be utilized to achieve textured ceramics with properties intermediate between those of randomly axed ceramics and single crystals. Spectroscopic ellipsometry is being utilized as a characterization tool to probe buried interfaces in electronic ceramics with angstrom scale depth resolution.

Technologies Impacted by Research:

• Capacitors
• Passive Components
• Actuators
• Microelectromechanical systems

Professional Experience:

Awards:

Selected Publications:

1. H. Nagata, S. W. Ko, E. Hong, C. A. Randall, S. Trolier-McKinstry, P. Pinceloup, D. Skamser, M. Randall, and A. Tajuddin, “Micro-contact Printed BaTiO₃ and LaNiO₃ Thin Films for Capacitors,” J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 89 (9) 2816 - 21 (2006).
2. S. Trolier-McKinstry, N. Bassiri Gharb, and D. Damjanovic, “Piezoelectric Nonlinearity Due to Motion of 180° Domain Walls in Ferroelectric Materials at Subcoercive Fields: a Dynamic Poling Model,” Applied Physics Letters 88 202901 (2006).
3. L.-P. Wang, R. A. Wolf, W. Yu, K.K. Deng, L. Zou, R. J. Davis, and S. Trolier-McKinstry, “Design, Fabrication, and Measurement of High-sensitivity Piezoelectric Microelectromechanical Systems Accelerometers,” J. MEMS 12 (4) 433-439 (2003).
4. W. Ren, S. Trolier-McKinstry, C. A. Randall and T. R. Shrout, “Bismuth Zinc Niobate Pyrochlore Dielectric Thin Films for Capacitive Applications,” J. Appl. Phys. 89(1) 767-774 (2001).
5. T. M. Shaw, S. Trolier-McKinstry, and P.C. McIntyre, “The Properties of Ferroelectric Films at Small Dimensions,” Annu. Rev. Mater. Sci. 30 263-298 (2000).