<title>Fabrication of high-performance PZT actuators using microwave and hot-press hybrid sintering process</title>

Abstract

It has been shown in our previous work that 28GHz microwave sintering process can improve the performances of piezoelectric actuators. The improved performances include larger output force, higher strength and larger electromechanical coupling factor. The improvement in performances is attributed to the repression of grain growth due to rapid heating and improvement of microstructure because of internal heating. The sintering time was reduced to 1/10 of the time needed for the traditional technology due to the lager power and uniform heating in the microwave sintering process. In this study, the microwave sintering process was combined with hot-press sintering process for further improvement of the performances of PZT actuators and the sintering conditions of the hybrid process were investigated. It has been confirmed that the combination of microwave and hot-press can further improve the performance of sintered PZT actuators by 30%. This process was also successfully used in the sintering of large samples.