Morgan Develops Large Piezoceramic Disc Manufacturing Capability For High Performance Transducers

The piezoceramic discs are based primarily on a modified range of soft piezoceramic which has been developed using Morgan’s proprietary ceramic compositions. The range offered is believed to be industry leading in terms of dimensional and performance characteristics from a single monolithic element.

The discs offer superb electrical characteristics harnessing decades of manufacturing process expertise to produce uniform high density, small grain size piezoceramic (PZT) components with exceptional effective permittivity and coupling characteristics.

Typical applications will include; actuators for adaptive optics utilised in astronomical exploration, correction of high power defence, scientific and industrial laser beams, custom actuators and bespoke energy harvesting solutions.

Various combinations can be made available subject to custom tooling up to 260mm diameter and down to 0.75mm thick; enabling uniformity of displacement across a large surface area as the design is based on a monolithic unimorph solution.

Frederic Pimparel, Technical Applications Manager at Morgan Advanced Materials commented, "Our philosophy is to push the boundaries in the manufacture of demanding components and to support the next generation of piezoceramic (PZT) materials – most current solutions are based smaller diameter elements. The size and material solutions offered by Morgan enable us to offer solutions that are tailored specifically to various demanding temperature requirements. We are currently at a maximum of approximately 250mm however we believe that larger components retaining the same piezoelectric characteristics are entirely feasible which would improve the dimensional displacement uniformity”.

The piezoceramic components are also available with a range of metallisation treatments subject to end application including but not limited to thick film silver and evaporated nickel over chrome – the components can also be supplied in a polarised highly polished non metallised format dependant on requirement.