Abstract: Embodiments relate to a piezoelectric ceramic and methods of making the same that is suitable for use as a high-power piezoelectric ceramic, and in particular a piezoelectric ceramic that exhibits both good hard properties and good soft properties. Embodiments involve generating the piezoelectric ceramic via the combination of chemical modification/doping and/or a texturing method so that the piezoelectric material exhibits a large figure of merit, as well as other hard and soft properties. The chemical modification involves Cu and Mn doping a piezoelectric material composition having a relaxor-lead titanate based ferroelectric structure. The texturing involves templated grain growth (TGG) texturing using a BaTiO3 (BT) template.

Abstract: A piezoelectric material includes a first material layer including a polycrystalline lead zinc niobate-lead zirconate titanate material arranged in a 001 crystal direction; and a second material layer including a mono-crystalline material having a 001 crystal face, wherein the lead zinc niobate-lead zirconate titanate and the mono-crystalline material are different. Also a piezoelectric device including the piezoelectric material.

Abstract: Textured PMN-PZT fabricated by templated grain growth (TGG) method has a piezoelectric coefficient (d) of 3 to 5 times that of its random counterpart. By combining this TGG method with low-temperature co-firing ceramics (LTCC) techniques, co-fired multilayer textured piezoelectric ceramic materials with inner electrodes were produced at a temperature as low as 925° C., which silver could be used. Trilayer PMN-PZT ceramics prepared by this method show a strain increase of 2.5 times, a driving voltage decrease of 3 times, and an equivalent piezoelectric coefficient (d*) improvement of 10 to 15 times that of conventional random ceramic counterparts. Further, a co-fired magnetostrictive/piezoelectric/magnetostrictive laminate structure with silver inner electrode was also synthesized. The integration of textured piezoelectric microstructure with the cost-effective low-temperature co-fired layered structure achieves strong magnetoelectric coupling.

Abstract: Textured PMN-PZT fabricated by templated grain growth (TGG) method has a piezoelectric coefficient (d) of 3 to 5 times that of its random counterpart. By combining this TGG method with low-temperature co-firing ceramics (LTCC) techniques, co-fired multilayer textured piezoelectric ceramic materials with inner electrodes were produced at a temperature as low as 925° C., which silver could be used. Trilayer PMN-PZT ceramics prepared by this method show a strain increase of 2.5 times, a driving voltage decrease of 3 times, and an equivalent piezoelectric coefficient (d*) improvement of 10 to 15 times that of conventional random ceramic counterparts. Further, a co-fired magnetostrictive/piezoelectric/magnetostrictive laminate structure with silver inner electrode was also synthesized. The integration of textured piezoelectric microstructure with the cost-effective low-temperature co-fired layered structure achieves strong magnetoelectric coupling.

Abstract: A textured PMN-PZT ceramic is created using templated grain growth to align seed crystals in a ceramic matrix powder by tape-casting process. Heat treatment then results in the nucleation and growth of matrix crystals on aligned templates. The resulting textured PMN-PZT ceramic has high longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient and a high piezoelectric voltage coefficient. In another embodiment, a textured PMN-PT ceramic has a volume fraction of the templates no greater than 1%. The utility of this invention includes both its exceptional piezoelectric properties as well as the utilization of an economical manufacturing process that is widely used in the multi-layer ceramic capacitor industry.