Researchers at EPFL in Switzerland have developed a lead-free piezoelectric material that could boost the performance of micromachined medical sensors.

The gadolinium-doped cerium oxide promises to be 100 times more effective that today’s materials and bio-compatible for medical applications.

By manipulating atomic defects in a lead-free material that is normally not piezoelectric, it is possible to induce a large piezoelectric effect.

“压电材料转化为电能into mechanical energy and vice-versa,” said Dr. Dae-Sung Park, a postdoc at EPFL’s research group for ferroelectrics and functional oxides, headed by Prof. Dragan Damjanovic. “They are practical and versatile and can be used as force sensors, actuators for moving objects or high-frequency resonators for imaging and electronic filters.”

Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) hold great promise for biomedical applications, such as for diagnostics, prognostics and therapeutics, but the lead metal that the best of them contain is toxic to the human body and environment. Researchers are therefore working to create lead-free alternatives to the piezoelectric materials currently employed in MEMS.

The research done by Dr. Park and Prof. Damjanovic was carried out under the BioWings project, a Horizon 2020 project to develop lead-free MEMS that can be used as actuators in various types of biomedical applications.