Resonance tunability of clamped–free piezoelectric cantilevers

Piezoelectric cantilevers often form a crucial part in actuating and sensing devices. Many dynamic applications require them to operate at the basic resonance. To ensure optimal performance, the eigenfrequency has to be adjustable to match varying application demands. Within this publication, it is demonstrated that the resonance frequency of a piezoelectric bimorph cantilever can be tuned about 20% by an applied static electrical field. This beneficial feature is explained by an extended analytical model including nonlinear properties of piezoelectric materials.