Design and fabrication of a high performance multilayerpiezoelectric actuator with bending deformation

摘要

A new bending mode multimorph actuator was designed and fabricatednsuccessfully by a multiple screen printing process. Unlike thenconventional bimorph actuator in which the bend occurs in the thicknessndirection, the bend in the multimorph actuator occurs in the widthwisendirection because of synchronistical deformation of each singlenmonolithic layer in the multilayer structure. The theoretical analysisnand experimental measurements were conducted to study the performance ofnthis type of actuator, and a comparison was made with the conventionalnbimorph actuator. Larger displacement, higher resonance frequency, andnmuch larger blocking force could be achieved with the multimorphnactuator than with a bimorph actuator of similar dimensions. Thenmultimorph actuator presented in this paper provides a valuablenalternative for actuator applications beyond those available with thenpopular bimorph and longitudinal multilayer actuators