Development of Textured 0.37PMN-0.29PIN-0.34PT Ceramics-Based Multilayered Actuator for Cost-Effective Replacement of Single Crystal-Based Actuators

Abstract

Multilayered actuators using Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PIN-PT) crystals have demonstrated excellent properties, but are costly and lack mechanical strength. Textured PMN-PIN-PT ceramics exhibit robust mechanical strength and comparable properties to their single crystals form. However, the development of multilayered actuators using textured PMN-PIN-PT ceramics has not been achieved until now. This study presents the development of a multilayered actuator using textured 0.37PMN-0.29PIN-0.34PT ceramics with an Ag0.9/Pd0.1 inner electrode, co-fired at 950℃. A random 0.37PMN-0.29PIN-0.34PT ceramics multilayered actuator was also developed for comparison. The multilayered actuator consisted of 9 ceramic layers (36 μm thickness) with an overall actuator thickness of 0.401 mm. The textured and random 0.37PMN-0.29PIN-0.34PT ceramics-based multilayered actuators achieved displacements of 0.61 μm (0.15% strain) and 0.23 μm (0.057% strain) at a low applied peak voltage of 100 V. These results suggest that the developed multilayered actuator using high-performance textured 0.37PMN-0.29PIN-0.34PT ceramics has the potential to replace expensive single crystal-based actuators costeffectively.