Cymbals and other flextensional transducers demonstrate high effective displacements due to the amplifying nature of the metal endcaps while stress-biased rainbow actuators display high displacements due to enhanced 900 domain wall translational processes that result from tensile stress in the surface region of the PZT layer created during manufacturing. A new class of transducers, called stress-biased cymbals (SBC), has been developed that couples the operational principles of cymbal and stress-biased actuators. Electromechanical response of the devices is approximately 50% greater than state of the art cymbal devices. Pre-stressing the PZT in the cymbal was accomplished using a flat-trained shape memory alloy endcap.

File Number: 07UMR021  

Web site: http://ecodevo.mst.edu

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Case Manager: Keith D. Strassner, kdstrass@mst.edu