A New Fabrication Method for a Curved Shape Piezoelectric Unimorph Actuator

This paper proposes a new fabrication method for a curved shape piezoelectric actuator. Instead of using thermal coefficient mismatch, which has been used for conventional processes for curved shape actuators, we used pre-stressed substrates and the room temperature adhesion process. First, a substrate material is strained in the longitudinal direction, and then a piezoelectric material is attached on the substrate. A difference of the mechanical strains between the substrate and the piezoelectric layer makes the final manufactured actuator get curved. Using this method, the curved shape actuator can be easily fabricated at room temperature. Several performance tests of the proposed unimorph actuators were accomplished and the test results showed the proposed actuator got comparable actuation capability compared with conventional curved shape actuators.