Piezostack actuator with high precision, long travel distance and low driving voltage

We designed a rotary piezoelectric stack actuator by making use of flexible multi-lever linkage structure. Based on the principle of leveraging, the levers can amplify the displacement from piezoelectric stacks and transfer the vibration to the driving feet, which makes it possible to drive the actuator in a large frequency band under low driving voltage and control the output speed of the actuator precisely. Experiment results show that the linear relation between output speed and exciting frequency, the minimum operating voltage can be as low as 20V. Dynamic model of the levers were built to analyze the relationship between structure stiffness and deformation. Finite element modeling software was used to determine the parameters of the stator structure and modify the actuator behavior. The results predicted that it is possible to achieve low voltage, long travel distance and high precision actuation with piezoelectric stack actuator.