Fabrication, characteristics and temperature stability of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–Pb(Sb1/3Nb2/3)O3–Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3–Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 piezoelectric actuators

(0.05 − x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–xPb(Sb1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.10Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3–0.85Pb(Zr1/2Ti1/2)O3 piezoelectric ceramics (abbreviated as PMN–PSN–PNN–PZT) were synthesized by traditional ceramics process. The effects of Pb(Sb1/3Nb2/3) content (abbreviated as PSN) on density, electrical properties and temperature stability of the ceramics were investigated in detail. The results showed that PMN–PNN–PZT ceramics with 0.015 PSN content sintered at 995 °C exhibited the favorable electrical properties and good temperature stability, which were listed as follows: d33 = 538 pC/N, kp = 0.81, Qm = 71, tan δ = 0.0095, ɛr = 3902, Δfr/fr20°C = −2.21% and Δkp/kp20°C = 3.61%. Meanwhile, the multilayer piezoelectric actuators with 65 piezoelectric layers and a thickness of 25 μm for each layer were fabricated using PMN–PSN–PNN–PZT by the tape-casting method and the ceramic/internal electrode co-firing technology. The multilayer piezoelectric actuators sintered at 995 °C exhibited larger displacement of 1.46 μm at the working voltage of 25 V.