Laboratory Experimental Setup for High Voltage Corona Polarization of Thin PVDF Films

Ferroelectric thin films based on the polymer material polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) can potentially have a wide range of applications, due to the strong connection between their electrical, mechanical and thermal properties. PVDF thin films can be applied in memory devices. The most widespread application of these elements is in piezoelectric sensors, actuators and energy harvesters from mechanical vibrations and mechanical impacts (the so-called “energy harvesting”). A very important operation in the production and testing of thin PVDF films is the polarization of the ferroelectric domains in the material. Similar to the case of ferromagnetic materials, after the production of the polymer material, the polarization domains in it are oriented stochastically, so it is necessary to perform their orientation by direction and course. For this reason, the ferroelectric sample is exposed to relatively high electric field strengths of (30÷100) kV/cm in order to orient and direct the domains. The paper presents the practical realization of the laboratory experimental setup of the system for high-voltage polarization of ultra-thin PVDF films by means of a high-voltage corona. Controlled corona is achieved in a hermetically sealed, temperature controlled and electrically isolated chamber. Finally, some key experimental results concerning high-voltage polarization are given.