MEMS flexible artificial basilar membrane fabricated from piezoelectric aluminum nitride on an SU-8 substrate

Abstract

In this paper, we present a flexible artificial basilar membrane (FABM) that mimics the passive mechanical frequency selectivity of the basilar membrane. The FABM is composed of a cantilever array made of piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) on an SU-8 substrate. We analyzed the orientations of the AlN crystals using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The AIN crystals are oriented in the c-axis (0 0 2) plane and effective piezoelectric coefficient was measured as 3.52 pm V-1. To characterize the frequency selectivity of the FABM, mechanical displacements were measured using a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer. When electrical and acoustic stimuli were applied, the measured resonance frequencies were in the ranges of 663.0-2369 Hz and 659.4-2375 Hz, respectively. These results demonstrate that the mechanical frequency selectivity of this piezoelectric FABM is close to the human communication frequency range (300-3000 Hz), which is a vital feature of potential auditory prostheses. © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd.