Design and experiments of a miniature piezoelectric actuator using a multilayer PZT bimorph

摘要

A miniature piezoelectric linear actuator based on stick-slip principle is proposed, with overall dimensions of only 3 mm * 3 mm * 4 mm. The actuator is comprised of a T-shape zirconia drive foot and a multilayer Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) bimorph. The bimorph consists of two parallel d(33) stacks which are mechanically conjoined but electrically separated. The output step length and thrust of the actuator were about 1 mu m and 0.23 N, respectively, under 50 V driving voltage and 0.25 N holding force. And the minimum step length was 0.17 mu m at 10 V. The multilayer structure makes the miniature actuator produce a significant displacement at low driving voltage and non-resonant frequency, which are beneficial to drive and control. The tiny structure and easy-controllability of the actuator show huge superiority in precision micro-positioning systems.