Vibration velocity limitation of transducer using titanium-based hydrothermal lead zirconate titanate thick film

High-intensity vibration operation of a titanium based lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thick film longitudinal vibrator fabricated using a hydrothermal method is described in this paper. Higher limitation of vibration velocity is very important for high output power actuators. For sensors, linearity of the frequency response is an important factor. To investigate the performance of the PZT film material, we changed the deposition process of the hydrothermal method and increased the thickness of the PZT film. As a result, the maximum vibration velocity of the longitudinal vibrator was 2.5 m/s (0 to peak value). This value was almost 3-fold that of bulk PZT material. The vibration velocity was limited by the value of maximum stress. The maximum stress of the hydrothermal PZT transducer was larger than that of the bulk PZT transducer. At such high-intensity vibration of over 2 m/s or driving voltage of 150 V_p-p, the frequency response curves were not linear and the jumping phenomenon was observed.