Many applications of ultrasound for sensing, actuation and imaging require miniaturized and low power transducers and transducer arrays integrated with electronic systems. Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducers (PMUTs), diaphragm-like thin film flexural transducers typically formed on silicon substrates, are a potential solution for integrated transducer arrays. This paper presents an overview of the current development status of PMUTs and a discussion of their suitability for miniaturized and integrated devices. The thin film piezoelectric materials required to functionalize these devices are discussed, followed by the microfabrication techniques used to create PMUT elements and the constraints the fabrication imposes on device design. Approaches for electrical interconnection and integration with on-chip electronics are discussed. Electrical and acoustic measurements from fabricated PMUT arrays with up to 320 diaphragm elements are presented. The PMUTs are shown to be broadband devices with an operating frequency which is tunable by tailoring the lateral dimensions of the flexural membrane or the thicknesses of the constituent layers. Finally, the outlook for future development of PMUT technology and the potential applications made feasible by integrated PMUT devices are discussed.

The realization of high-performance nanoelectronics requires control of materials at the nanoscale. Methods to produce high quality epitaxial graphene (EG) nanostructures on silicon carbide are known. The next step is to grow van der Waals semiconductors on top of EG nanostructures. Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a wide bandgap semiconductor with a honeycomb lattice structure that matches that of graphene, making it ideally suited for graphene-based nanoelectronics. Here, we describe the preparation and characterization of multilayer h-BN grown epitaxially on EG using a migration-enhanced metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy process. As a result of the lateral epitaxial deposition (LED) mechanism, the grown h-BN/EG heterostructures have highly ordered epitaxial interfaces, as desired in order to preserve the transport properties of pristine graphene. Atomic scale structural and energetic details of the observed row-by-row growth mechanism of the two-dimensional (2D) epitaxial h-BN film are analyzed through first-principles simulations, demonstrating one-dimensional nucleation-free-energy-barrierless growth. This industrially relevant LED process can be applied to a wide variety of van der Waals materials.

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