Electrophoretic deposition and characterization of helical piezoelectric actuator

The helical actuator was successfully fabricated using the versatile technique of electrophoretic deposition (EPD), which was achieved by depositing two electrode-separated layers of PZT powders on the helical shaped substrate and co-sintering. The actuator is able to generate a rotational displacement Δl in the circumferential direction and also a radial displacement ΔR in the radial direction, as a result of field-induced rotation of the cross section. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the displacements are linearly proportional to the number of the turns n and applied electric field. And also, rotational motion shows larger displacement than the radial motion due to the circular configuration. For the fabricated actuator (45.76 mm in length, 4.09 mm in outer diameter, 0.55 mm in the wall thickness and 4 turns), approximately 43 and 9 μm displacements have been achieved for the rotational and radial motions, respectively.