Nickel doped PZT type ceramics for displacement microsystems

A soft PZT type material was prepared by the usual ceramic technique and was doped with Ni. Doping levels of about 20 at.% provided piezoelectric materials with improved characteristics. Thus the electromechanical planar coupling coefficient increased to 0.64, the relative dielectric constant to nearly 5500 and the piezoelectric charge constant d/sub 33/ to over 800/spl middot/10/sup -12/ m/N. Such materials are extremely suitable for actuators and micromotors applications.