Piezoceramic Materials

Piezo Materials Based on Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT)

PI Ceramic provides a wide selection of piezoelectric ceramic materials based on modified lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and barium titanate. The designations of "soft" and "hard" piezo ceramics refer to the mobility of the dipoles or domains and hence also to the polarization and depolarization behavior. For actuator applications, ferroelectrically soft piezoceramics with low polarity reversal field strengths are used. Ferroelectrically hard PZT materials are primarily used in high-power acoustic applications. In addition, PI Ceramic offers lead-free piezo ceramics, currently used especially as ultrasonic transducers, and a crystalline actuator material.

For application-specific properties, actuators and transducers can be manufactured from special materials, although the technical implementation has to be checked individually.

The material properties are classified according to the EN 50324 European Standard.

Ideal for Piezo Actuators and Sensors

Ferroelectrically soft piezo ceramic materials can be polarized fairly easily even at relatively low field strengths. This is due to the comparably high domain mobility typical for them. The advantages of soft PZT materials are their large piezoelectric charge coefficient, moderate permittivities and high coupling factors.

Applications

Important fields of application for soft piezo ceramics are: Actuators for micropositioning and nanopositioning, sensors, such as conventional vibration detectors, ultrasonic transmitters and receivers, e.g., for flow or level measurement, object identification or monitoring, as well as for electro-acoustic applications as sound transducers and microphones, and also as sound pickups on musical instruments.

PIC151	Standard material for actuators of the PICA Stack/Thru and Piezo Tubes series
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	High permittivity, large coupling factor, high piezoelectric charge coefficient, relatively high Curie temperature
Suitable for	Actuators, low-power ultrasonic transducers, low-frequency sound transducers
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	600
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	II

PIC255	Standard material for PICA Power, DuraAct, PICA Shear, and Piezo Tubes series
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	Very high Curie temperature, moderate permittivity, high coupling factor, high charge coefficient, low mechanical quality factor, low temperature coefficient, relatively high polarity reversal field strength (>1 kV/mm)
Suitable for	Actuator applications for dynamic operating conditions and high ambient temperatures, low-power ultrasonic transducers, nonresonant broadband systems, force and acoustic pickup sensors
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	200
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	II

PIC155
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	Very high Curie temperature, moderate permittivity, low mechanical quality factor, low temperature coefficient, high sensitivity (g coefficients)
Suitable for	Applications which require a high g coefficient (piezoelectric voltage coefficient), e.g., for microphones and vibration pickups with preamplifier, vibration measurements at low frequencies
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	200
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	II

PIC153	Material for special actuators of the PICA Stack/Thru series and for glued bending actuators
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	Extremely high permittivity and coupling factors, high charge coefficient, Curie temperature around 185 °C
Suitable for	Hydrophones, transducers in medical diagnostics and PZT translators
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	600
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	VI

PIC152
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	Permittivity with extremely low temperature coefficient
Suitable for	Force and acceleration transducers
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	200
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	II

High-Performance Material for Ultrasonic Transducers

Ferroelectrically hard PZT materials can be subjected to high electrical and mechanical stresses. Their properties hardly change under these conditions.

The advantages of these materials are their moderate permittivity, large piezoelectric coupling factors, high mechanical qualities, and very good stability under high mechanical loads and operating field strengths. Low dielectric losses facilitate their continuous use in resonance mode with only low intrinsic heating of the component.

Applications

Especially high-power acoustic applications benefit from the properties of hard piezo materials. Examples of their fields of application include ultrasonic cleaning (typically in the kHz frequency range), the machining of materials (ultrasonic welding, bonding, drilling, etc.), ultrasonic processors (e.g., to disperse liquid media), the medical sector (ultrasonic tartar removal, surgical instruments, etc.) and sonar technology.

PIC181
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	Extremely high mechanical quality factor, good temperature, and time stability of its dielectric and elasticity constants
Suitable for	High-power acoustic applications, resonance-mode ultrasonic applications
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	100
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	I

PIC184
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	Large electromechanical coupling factor, moderately high quality factor, excellent mechanical and electrical stability
Suitable for	High-power ultrasound applications, hydroacoustics, sonar technology
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	100
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	I

PIC144
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	Large electromechanical coupling factor, high quality factor, excellent mechanical and electrical stability, high compressive resistance
Suitable for	High-power ultrasound applications, hydroacoustics, sonar technology
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	100
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	I

PIC241
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	High mechanical quality factor, higher permittivity than PIC181
Suitable for	High-power acoustic applications, piezomotor drives
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	100
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	I

PIC300
Material	Modified lead zirconate titanate
Characteristics	Very high Curie temperature
Suitable for	Use at temperatures up to 250 °C (briefly up to 300 °C)
Classification in accordance with EN 50324-1	100
MIL-Standard DOD-STD-1376A	I

First Steps Towards the Industrial Use of Lead-Free Piezo Materials

With the PIC700 and PIC701 materials from laboratory production, PI Ceramic offers the first lead-free piezoceramic materials on the market. Both materials are based on bismuth sodium titanate (BNT) and show very similar characteristics to barium titanate materials. The materials are suitable for ultrasonic transducers in the MHz range and for sonar and hydrophone applications.

PIC700
Material	Modified bismuth sodium titanate
Characteristics	Max. operation temperature 200 °C, low density, high coupling factor of the thickness oscillation, low permittivity, and piezoelectric coupling factors compared with conventional PZT materials
Suitable for	Ultrasonic transducers >1 MHz

PIC701
Material	Modified bismuth sodium titanate
Characteristics	Max. operation temperature 230 °C, low density, high coupling factor of the thickness oscillation, low permittivity, and piezoelectric coupling factors compared with conventional PZT materials
Suitable for	Ultrasonic transducers >1 MHz

Barium lead titanates are mainly used in sonar technology and in some therapeutic, ultrasonic medical applications because of their Curie temperature of up to 150°C. As one of the first piezo ceramic that could be industrially manufactured, modified barium lead titanate is today only used manly for maintaining old products. PI Ceramic manufacturs modified barium lead titanates on request.

Datasheet

Material Data

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PI Temperature Curve Resonance Frequency

PI Temperature Curve Piezoelectric Charge Coefficient

PI Thermal Strain Perpendicular to Polarization

The thermal strain exhibits different behavior in the polarization direction and perpendicularly to it.

Nonpolarized piezoceramic elements are isotropic. The coefficient of expansion is approximately linear at a temperature coefficient of approx 2 × 10^-6 / K.

The preferred orientation of the domains in a polarized PZT body leads to anisotropy, which is the cause of the varying thermal expansion behavior.

The effect of successive temperature changes must be taken into account in the application. Large changes in the curve can occur particularly in the first temperature cycle.

Depending on the material, it is possible that the curves deviate strongly from those illustrated.

Material	PI Ceramic	Company A	Company B	Company C	Company D	Company E	Company F	Company G
Soft-PZT	PIC151		Sonox P51	5600	PZT5J-series	NCE56		K500
Soft-PZT	PIC152		Sonox P502			NCE53	PZ23
Soft-PZT	PIC153	855	Sonox P53	5700	PZT5H1, PZT5H2	NCE55	PZ29	K550
Soft-PZT	PIC155
Soft-PZT	PIC254		Sonox P504
Soft-PZT	PIC255	850	Sonox P5	5500	PZT5A-series	NCE51, NCE51f	PZ27, P188	K350
Hard-PZT	PIC144	840	Sonox P4	5400	PZT400	NCE40, NCE41	PZ26, P762	K270
Hard-PZT	PIC181	880	Sonox P8, P88	5800	PZT800 series	NCE80, NCE81	PZ28, P189	K278
Hard-PZT	PIC184	840	Sonox P4	5400	PZT400 series	NCE40	PZ26, P762	K270
Hard-PZT	PIC300		Sonox P6

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Piezoelectric Materials

Piezo Materials Based on Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT)

Soft Piezoelectric Materials

Soft Piezoelectric Materials

Ideal for Piezo Actuators and Sensors

Applications

Material Properties and Classification

Hard Piezoelectric Materials

High-Performance Material for Ultrasonic Transducers

Applications

Material Properties and Classification

Lead-Free Piezoelectric Materials

First Steps Towards the Industrial Use of Lead-Free Piezo Materials

Modified Barium Lead Titanate

Material Data

Material Data

Temperature Dependence of the Coefficients

Temperature curve of the capacitance C

Temperature curve of the resonant frequency of the longitudinal oscillation fs

Temperature curve of the coupling factor of the transverse oscillation k31

Temperature curve of the piezoelectric charge coefficient d31

Specific Characteristics

Thermal Properties Using PZT Ceramic PIC255 as Example

Thermal Properties Using PZT Ceramic PIC255 as Example

Materials Comparison

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