The invention relates to a method for producing ceramics having piezoelectric properties in predominantly aqueous suspending agents.

The invention relates to a ferroelectric, which has a piezoelectric material having a hafnium proportion of 2% or less, to the use of a ferroelectric of this type in energy generation and for implementation in memory, processor and sensor technologies, to the use of a ferroelectric, in which use energy demand is lowered by superconductivity, and to a method for producing a ferroelectric, in which method a sintering method is used.

A method of manufacturing a ceramic structure, a method of manufacturing a ceramic structure with multiple layers of ceramic material, and a method of manufacturing a piezoelectric ceramic structure. The method of manufacturing a ceramic structure includes the steps of: placing a sheet of ceramic material on a supporting platform, wherein the supporting platform is arranged to elevate the sheet of ceramic material from a base of the supporting platform by supporting only a first portion of the sheet of ceramic material; sintering the sheet of ceramic material; and during the step of sintering of the sheet of ceramic material, facilitating forming a curvature on the sheet of ceramic material at a second portion of the sheet of ceramic material which is not supported by the supporting platform.

Provided is a piezoelectric material filler including alkali niobate compound particles having a ratio (K/(Na+K)) of the number of moles of potassium to the total number of moles of sodium and potassium of 0.460 to 0.495 in terms of atoms and a ratio ((Li+Na+K)/Nb) of the total number of moles of alkali metal elements to the number of moles of niobium of 0.995 to 1.005 in terms of atoms. The present invention can provide a piezoelectric material filler having excellent piezoelectric properties, and a composite piezoelectric material including the piezoelectric material filler and a polymer matrix.

A method of forming an electrode in a ceramic transducer electronic component is provided. The method includes preparing a sintered body for a ceramic transducer containing a metal oxide, performing patterning by irradiating a laser on a surface of the sintered body for a ceramic transducer, and forming a metal electrode by performing an electroless plating process on the sintered body for a ceramic transducer on which the patterning is formed, wherein, in the performing of the patterning by irradiating the laser on the surface of the sintered body for a ceramic transducer, the patterning is performed by irradiating the laser that satisfies at least one of a predetermined power condition and a predetermined processing speed condition.

A process for preparing a porous ceramic body includes forming a green body with a mixture of ceramic material powder, binder material, and pore-forming particles. The process further includes extracting the binder material, decomposing the pore-forming particles, and removing residual organic materials from the green body at respective, progressively higher pre-firing temperatures. After these three stages, the green body is sintered at a still-higher temperature to form the porous ceramic body. Embodiments facilitate manufacturing and can render most or all surface grinding unnecessary, allowing electrode deposition directly onto substantially non-porous surfaces of the porous ceramic body that are naturally formed during sintering. Advantageously, the green body may be formed into net shape by injection molding the mixture that includes the pore-forming particles, and embodiments can result in porous ceramic bodies that are much thicker than currently available, with better structural integrity.

Provided are a piezoelectric ceramics which does not contain lead, has small temperature dependence of a piezoelectric constant within an operating temperature range, and has high density, a high mechanical quality factor, a satisfactory piezoelectric constant, and a small surface roughness, and a method of manufacturing the piezoelectric ceramics. The method of manufacturing a piezoelectric ceramics is characterized by including: sintering a compact containing a raw material at 1,000° C. or more to obtain a sintered compact; abrading the sintered compact; and annealing the abraded sintered compact at a temperature of 800° C. or more and less than 1,000° C.

In an embodiment a piezoelectric multilayer component includes a ceramic main body comprising a ceramic material, wherein a main component of the ceramic material has the general empirical formula (K.sub.XNa.sub.1-X)NbO.sub.3, where 0≤x≤1, wherein the ceramic material comprises at least two additives selected from a number of compounds respectively comprising at least one metal, wherein a metal of a first additive comprises at least K, Nb, Cu, Mn or Ta, and wherein a metal of a second additive comprises K, Nb or Ta.

Form internal electrodes with a metal whose silver content is 80 percent by mass or higher, and also constitute piezoelectric ceramic layers with a piezoelectric ceramic whose primary component is an alkaline niobate having a perovskite structure and which contains at least one type of alkaline earth metal selected from calcium and barium, as well as silver, wherein the total content of the alkaline earth metal is 0.2 percent by mol or higher but lower than 2.0 percent by mol when the element content in the B sites of the alkaline niobate represents 100 percent by mol, and wherein the piezoelectric ceramic layers each contain at least one sintered grain 41 that has silver-segregated regions 42 inside and the silver-segregated regions 42 have a long diameter of 10 nm or smaller.

Disclosed is a method of manufacturing ultrasonic sensors. The method includes forming a micropattern having concave and convex portions on an etchable substrate, filling a piezoelectric material in the concave portions of the micropattern, pressurizing the filled piezoelectric material, sintering the piezoelectric material to form preliminary piezoelectric bodies, re-sintering the preliminary piezoelectric bodies to form densely packed unit piezoelectric bodies, and forming electrode terminals at both ends of each of the unit piezoelectric bodies to produce a unit piezoelectric cell. The method enables the manufacture of high-quality ultrasonic sensors in high yield.