Advanced sensors and actuators and their incorporation into micro electromechanical systems

The paper deals with material properties of piezoelectric relaxer based single crystals 0.91Pb(Zn/sub 1/3/Nb/sub 2/3/)-0.09PbTiO/sub 3/ (PZN-PT), which are important for application in actuators and sensors. The electromechanical coupling coefficient k/sub 33/, elastic coefficient s/sub 33//sup D/ and piezoelectric coefficient d/sub 33/ are determined using dynamic (resonant) and static methods of measurement. Strain vs. electric field characteristic with low hysteresis was observed for this single crystal. Design of an actuator of small displacements is presented. The integration possibilities of electromechanical elements into a high degree integration density (VLSI) circuits and creation of the micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are mentioned. The VLSI circuits are designed as digital ASIC circuits using CADENCE software.