Lead-free piezoelectric-metal-cavity (PMC) actuators.

A piezoelectric piezoelectric-metal-cavity (PMC) actuator was reported previously that can exhibit a large flexural displacement. In this paper, a lead-free piezoelectric ceramic was used as a driving element of the PMC actuator. Bi(0.5)(Na(0.725)K(0.175)Li(0.1))(0.5)TiO3 (abbreviated as BNKLT) is a soft-type piezoelectric ceramic with good piezoelectric properties at room temperature. Both the electrical and mechanical properties of the BNKLT PMC actuator were measured. With good piezoelectric coefficients and low density, the BNKLT ceramic has the potential to be used as the driving element of the lead-free actuator.