Monolithic piezoelectric actuators and vibration dampers with interdigital electrodes

This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the performance of interdigital electrode (IDE) actuators and dampers constructed using ACX QuickPackTM piezoelectric packaging technology. The details of the concept, device design, experimental plan and results, and analysis of the IDE devices are presented. Electromechanical coupling coefficients calculated using two different methods indicated values of 0.45 to 0.71 were achieved for IDE devices, as compared to 0.29 to 0.35 for conventional d31 devices. Experimental results are provided that compare the damping and actuation performance of conventional d31 devices with the performance of IDE devices. Resistively shunted IDE damper devices achieved greater than a factor of two in improvement in added damping over conventional PZT dampers. In addition, the high field generative strain of IDE actuators was shown to be 70% greater than that produced by a d31 actuator.