A vibration wave motor includes a driven body, a vibrator including an annular vibration plate and an annular piezoelectric element, and a vibration damping member, which are arranged in sequence, wherein the vibration plate has, on a side facing the driven body, radially extending groove portions at X places, and, when center depths of the groove portions at X places are sequentially denoted by D1 to DX in a circumferential direction, D1 to DX vary along a curve obtained by superposing one or more sine waves, and wherein the vibration plate is locally supported by the vibration damping member in some or all antinode portions of a standing wave occurring when the vibration wave motor is driven.

A piezoelectric ceramic has a primary phase constituted by ceramic grains of perovskite crystal structure containing Pb, Nb, Zn, Ti, and Zr, and a secondary phase constituted by ZnO grains present sporadically in the primary phase. The piezoelectric ceramic of high kr and high specific dielectric constant can be sintered at low temperature and exhibit minimal characteristics variations.

A microactuator for a dual stage actuated suspension for a hard disk drive is constructed as a longitudinal stack of piezoelectric (PZT) elements acting in the d33 mode, expanding or contracting longitudinally when an electric field is applied across them in the longitudinal direction. The microactuator has interlaced electrode fingers that separate and define the individual PZT elements, and apply the electric field. A stiff constraint layer having a high Young's modulus is affixed to the microactuator on the side opposite the suspension to which the microactuator is bonded. The constraint layer may be a layer of substantially inactive PZT material that is formed integrally with the PZT elements but without electrodes in the inactive PZT layer. The presence of the stiff constraint layer increases the effective stroke length of the microactuator.

The present invention relates to a stacked piezoelectric ceramic element and can provide a stacked piezoelectric ceramic element produced by stacking two or more ceramic green sheets, the stacked piezoelectric ceramic element having a structure in which a ceramic porous or defective part constituting the stacked piezoelectric ceramic element is impregnated with an organic resin, thereby improving waterproof performance capable of preventing the deterioration of insulation resistance in a highly humid environment.

A piezoelectric ceramic sputtering target containing a perovskite type oxide represented by chemical formula (I) of ABO.sub.3 as a main component, wherein the component A of the chemical formula (I) contains at least K (potassium) and/or Na (sodium), the component B of the chemical formula (I) contains at least one selected from the group consisting of Nb (niobium), Ta (tantalum) and Zr (zirconium) with Nb (niobium) as a necessity, the piezoelectric ceramic sputtering target is composed of a plurality of crystal grains and grain boundaries existing among the crystal grains, and in the grain boundary, the molar ratio of at least one of Nb (niobium), Ta (tantalum), and Zr (zirconium) in the B components is higher than the molar ratio in the interior of the crystal grains by 30% or more.

Various embodiments concern electronic devices capable of providing localized haptic feedback. More specifically, an electronic device can include an array of piezoelectric actuators that is disposed within the housing of the electronic device. When a user interacts with the electronic device (e.g., with content presented on a display), one or more of the piezoelectric actuators in the array can be induced into performing a haptic event. For example, a power source may selectively apply voltage to one or more piezoelectric actuators (and thus induce the haptic event). The localized haptic feedback provided by the piezoelectric actuator(s) can increase the realism of content experienced by the user.

A piezoelectric element includes a piezoelectric body having a main phase configured by lead zirconate titanate and a heterogenous phase configured by a different component to lead zirconate titanate, and a pair of electrodes provided on the piezoelectric body. The piezoelectric body has a surface region within 10 μm of a surface, and an inner region more than 10 μm from the surface. A surface area coverage of the heterogenous phase in a cross section of the surface region is at least 0.75% greater than a surface area coverage of the heterogenous phase in a cross section of the inner region.

An electronic component includes an inner electrode inside of a main body and exposed at a surface of the main body, and an outer electrode on a surface of the main body and electrically connected to the inner electrode, wherein a plurality of recesses are provided in a surface of the outer electrode, and each of the plurality of recesses includes a portion in which a diameter of an opening of the recess gradually decreases toward an opening side of the recess.

An elastic wave device propagating plate waves includes a stack of an acoustic reflection layer, a piezoelectric layer, and IDT electrode on a supporting substrate. The piezoelectric layer is thinner than a period of fingers of the IDT electrode. The acoustic reflection layer includes low-acoustic-impedance layers and high-acoustic-impedance layers. The low-acoustic-impedance layers are made of SiO.sub.2, and the high-acoustic-impedance layers are made of at least one material selected from the group consisting of W, LiTaO.sub.3, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, AlN, LiNbO.sub.3, SiN, and ZnO.

The invention relates to a ceramic material, comprising lead zirconate titanate, which additionally contains K and optionally Cu. The ceramic material can be used in an electroceramic component, for example a piezoelectric actuator. The invention also relates to methods for producing the ceramic material and the electronic component.