The present invention relates to a piezoelectric ceramic stacked structure, and the piezoelectric ceramic stacked structure includes at least one first layer including a KNN-based ceramic; and at least one second layer including a BFO-based ceramic, wherein a ratio of a number (n1) of the first layers stacked to a number (n2) of the second layers stacked in the piezoelectric ceramic stacked structure satisfies Equation (1) below:

0.8?|q|/|p|?n1/n2?1.2?|q|/|p|(1) (Equation (1) is as defined in the Description).

A system and method provides a piezoelectric stack arrangement for reduced driving voltage while maintaining a driving level for active piezoelectric materials. A stack arrangement of d.sub.36 shear mode <011>single crystals of both air X-cut and Y-cut 1:45 (20) arrangement are bonded with discrete conductive pillars to form a shear crystal stack. The bonding area between the neighboring crystal parts is minimized. The bonding pillars are positioned at less than a total surface are of the single crystal forming the stack. The stack fabrication is facilitated with a precision assembly system, where crystal parts are placed to desired locations on an assembly fixture for alignment following the preset operation steps. With the reduced clamping effect from bonding due to lower surface coverage of the discrete conductive pillars, such a piezoelectric d.sub.36 shear crystal stack exhibits a reduced driving voltage while maintaining a driving level and substantial and surprisingly improved performance.

Provided are a piezoelectric device capable of exhibiting high power-generation performance without impairing flexibility and a method of manufacturing the piezoelectric device. The piezoelectric device includes a multilayer structure 1 in which a polymer nonwoven fabric 3 holding or containing piezoelectric ceramic particles 4 and a polymer resin sheet 2 containing piezoelectric ceramic particles are stacked such that at least one layer of the polymer nonwoven fabric is included. This multilayer structure can provide an electric power output equal to or larger than the electric power output produced by a multilayer structure in which a layer of the polymer resin sheet is stacked on each of two main surface sides of a layer of the polymer nonwoven fabric.

A manufacturing a process is provided for the bulk manufacture of transducer arrays, including arrays having at least one 3D printed (or otherwise additive manufactured) acoustic matching layers. In certain implementations, the manufactured transducers include a composite-piezoelectric transducer on a de-matching layer. In one implementation, by producing multiple arrays at once on a common carrier, and by using direct-deposit additive processes for the matching layers, the described processes greatly reduce the number of parts and the number of manual operations.

A stacked ultrasound vibration device is provided with a plurality of piezoelectric bodies between two mass materials, in which brazing materials with an elastic constant smaller than elastic constants of the two mass materials and the plurality of piezoelectric bodies are used to bond the plurality of piezoelectric bodies as similar material bonding portions by a first metal bonding layer with a first thickness and to bond the plurality of piezoelectric bodies and the mass materials as dissimilar material bonding portions by a second metal bonding layer with a second thickness thicker than the first thickness.

A method for producing a piezoelectric stack actuator and a piezoelectric stack actuator are disclosed. To increase service life of a piezoelectric stack actuator made up of individual actuators, includes providing at least two actuators the method and designed and configured to generate a deflection along an axis (A) when electrically activated; and coupling the at least two actuators to form the stack actuator such that deflections of the actuators generated when the actuators are electrically activated are overlaid along a stacking axis (S) and there is a force-coupling of the actuators over at least one coupling area (K) that is smaller than a projection area (P) of the actuator onto a plane (E) perpendicular to the stacking axis.

A method for producing a piezoelectric stack actuator and a piezoelectric stack actuator are disclosed. To increase service life of a piezoelectric stack actuator made up of individual actuators, includes providing at least two actuators the method and designed and configured to generate a deflection along an axis (A) when electrically activated; and coupling the at least two actuators to form the stack actuator such that deflections of the actuators generated when the actuators are electrically activated are overlaid along a stacking axis (S) and there is a force-coupling of the actuators over at least one coupling area (K) that is smaller than a projection area (P) of the actuator onto a plane (E) perpendicular to the stacking axis.

An in-situ poled ferroelectric prints with true 3D geometry is provided with an intercalated electrode design where soft polymer matrixes are selected for the ferroelectric layers, and rigid polymer matrixes are selected for the electrode layers, thus mimicking nacre architecture with a ceramic-like piezoelectric property and bone-like fracture toughness. Lithium-doped potassium sodium niobite (LiKNN) microparticles may be used to produce ferroelectric properties and to create strong interfacial bonding with the interfacing electrode layers. Polylactic acid (PLA) in the electrode layers may be used to facilitate strong interfacial bonding with the LiKNN microparticles.

An in-situ poled ferroelectric prints with true 3D geometry is provided with an intercalated electrode design where soft polymer matrixes are selected for the ferroelectric layers, and rigid polymer matrixes are selected for the electrode layers, thus mimicking nacre architecture with a ceramic-like piezoelectric property and bone-like fracture toughness. Lithium-doped potassium sodium niobite (LiKNN) microparticles may be used to produce ferroelectric properties and to create strong interfacial bonding with the interfacing electrode layers. Polylactic acid (PLA) in the electrode layers may be used to facilitate strong interfacial bonding with the LiKNN microparticles.

A piezoelectric ceramic plate which is slightly deformed by firing, includes a plate-shaped substrate, and an electronic component. The piezoelectric ceramic plate has a pair of main surfaces, a pair of opposing first side surfaces, and a pair of opposing second side surfaces. The pair of first side surfaces are baked surfaces, and the distance between the pair of first side surfaces measured at the center in the longitudinal direction is denoted by Lc and the distance between the pair of first side surfaces measured at ends in the longitudinal direction is denoted by Le. The ratio of the difference L between Le and Lc to Lc (L/Lc) is 1.0% or less. The piezoelectric ceramic plate is suitably used as a piezoelectric ceramic plate having an area of each of the main surfaces of 360 mm.sup.2 or more and a thickness of 150 m or less.