Piezoelectric Actuation: State of the Art

Abstract

Significant advances in smart material actuators have taken place in the past decade. The holy grail of actuator research is an architecture that can generate high displacement and force throughout a broad frequency range while not consuming a significant amount of electrical power. The large appeal of using smart material actuators stems from their high mechanical energy density. However, all smart material actuators generally have at least one shortcoming involving either mechanical stroke, force, or frequency capability. Whenever speed is a consideration, piezoelectric actuation is the most commonly employed. The purpose of this paper is to review the most current trends in piezoelectric actuation architectures. The paper does not present the theoretical details of each actuator, but instead strives to highlight the novel concepts used in each design to overcome the stroke limitation of the material.