Electrical properties of low temperature sintering multilayer piezoelectric transformer using Pb(Mn1/3Nb2/3)O3–Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3–Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 ceramics

Low temperature sintering multilayer piezoelectric transformers for AC–DC converter were manufactured using Pb(Mn1/3Nb2/3)O3–Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3–Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 (abbreviated as PZN–PMN–PZT) ceramics and then their electrical properties were investigated according to the variations of frequency and load resistance. The voltage step-up ratio of multilayer piezoelectric transformer showed the maximum value in the vicinity of 73 kHz and increased according to the increase of load resistance. When the output impedance coincided with the load resistance, the piezoelectric transformer showed the temperature rise of about 21 °C at the output power of 15 W. The multilayer piezoelectric transformer manufactured at low co-firing temperature of 940 °C using PZN–PMN–PZT ceramics could be stably driven as the step-down transformers.