PIEZOELECTRICITY

By
Er.J.Sankar
Er. Varun S.
Piezoelectricity?

Sense of electric field when subjected by external force.
Expand or contract in response to an externally applied voltage.

Discovery
Piezoelectricity was discovered in quarts by the brothers Pierre and Jacques curie in
1880.
First practical application was in the 1920 Langevin developed a quarts transmitter
and receiver for under water sound(sonar).
Now a days it used in wide applications like, Piezoelectric Accelerometers, hybrid
photovoltaic cell, sensors.
In case of MEMS it used as sensors as well as actuators.
Crystal Structure
The physical origin of piezoelectricity is explained by
charge asymmetry within the primitive cell, resulting in
the formation of the net dipole.
Adding up individual dipoles over the entire crystal gives
a net polarization and an effective electric field with in the
material.
Only a crystal that lacks a center of symmetry exhibits
piezoelectric properties.
Bellow the curie temp only all the Piezoelectric materials
exhibits piezoelectricity.
Asymmetry Crystal
UNSTRESSED/NO LOAD
STRESSED/LOADED
p
i

p
i

p
i
=0
p
i
0
Drawing tool: Auto CAD-2004
Symmetry Crystal
UNSTRESSED/NO LOAD
STRESSED/LOADED
p
i
=0
p
i
=0
Drawing tool: Auto CAD-2004
Piezoelectric Effect On
Crystalline Plate
Length (l)
Width (W)
Thickness (t)
d
ij
where,
d=surface charge
i=charge direction
j=stress/displacement
Direction of
polarization
Modeling Tool: Autodesk Inventer-2009
Supply Voltage V
A
across the
thickness
Direction of
polarization
L=d31.V
A
.L/t
W=d31.V
A
.W/t
t=d33.V
A
Length (l)
Width (W)
Thickness (t)
Modeling Tool: Autodesk Inventer-2009
Stress/Force applied to the
system
V
m
=Measured
voltage

then,

V
m
=d
31
.F/(.W)

V
m
=d
31
.F/(.L)

V
m
=d
33
.F/(.L.W)

Direction of
polarization
Length (l)
Width (W)
Thickness (t)
Modeling Tool: Autodesk Inventer-2009
MATERIALS EXHIBITING
PIEZOELECTRICITY
BOTH NATURAL & SYNTHETIC
Natural
Quartz
Berlinite (AlPO
4
), a rare
phosphate mineral that is
structurally identical to
quartz
Sucrose (table sugar)
Rochelle salt
Topaz
Tourmaline-group
minerals

Synthetic
The family of ceramics with perovskite or tungsten-bronze
structures exhibits piezoelectricity:

Barium titanate (BaTiO
3
)was the first
piezoelectric ceramic discovered.
Lead titanate (PbTiO
3
)
Lead zirconate titanate, PZT,
Lithium niobate (LiNbO
3
)
Lithium tantalate (LiTaO
3
)
Sodium tungstate (Na
2
WO
3
)
Zinc oxide (ZnO)
Ba
2
NaNb
5
O
5
& Pb
2
KNb5O
15

BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
EXHIBITING PIEZOELECTRIC
PROPERTIES
Tendon
Silk
Wood due to piezoelectric texture
Enamel
Dentin
DNA
Viral proteins, including those from bacteriophage. One
study has found that thin films of M13 bacteriophage can be
used to construct a piezoelectric generator sufficient to
operate a liquid crystal display.
APPLICATIONS OF
PIEZOELECTRICITY
High voltage and power sources
The best-known application is the electric cigarette lighter: pressing the
button causes a spring-loaded hammer to hit a piezoelectric crystal,
producing a sufficiently high voltage electric current that flows across a
small spark gap, thus heating and igniting the gas. The portable sparkers
used to ignite gas stoves work the same way, and many types of gas
burners now have built-in piezo-based ignition systems.
A similar idea is being researched by DARPA in the United States in a
project called Energy Harvesting, which includes an attempt to power
battlefield equipment by piezoelectric generators embedded in soldiers'
boots.
A piezoelectric transformer is a type of AC voltage multiplier. Unlike a
conventional transformer, which uses magnetic coupling between input
and output, the piezoelectric transformer uses acoustic coupling.
CONTINUED
Sensors
The principle of operation of a piezoelectric sensor is that a
physical dimension, transformed into a force, acts on two
opposing faces of the sensing element. Depending on the
design of a sensor, different "modes" to load the
piezoelectric element can be used: longitudinal, transversal
and shear.
Actuators
As very high electric fields correspond to only tiny changes in the
width of the crystal, this width can be changed with better-than-
m precision, making piezo crystals the most important tool for
positioning objects with extreme accuracy thus their use in
actuators.
PIEZOELECTRIC
GENERATORS
Single-Layer Piezoelectric
Generators
Electrical energy in a rod-shaped single-
layer piezo generator is released very
quickly, is very high voltage, and very
low current. Piezoelectric ignition
systems are small and simple, long
lasting and require little maintenance.
Multilayer Piezoelectric
Generators
Multilayer piezo generators consist of a
stack of very thin (sub-millimeter-
thick) piezoelectric ceramics alternated
with electrodes. The electrical energy
produced by a multilayer piezo
generator is of a much lower voltage
than is generated by a single-layer piezo
generator. On the other hand, the
current produced by a multilayer
generator is significantly higher than
the current generated by a single-layer
piezoelectric generator.
PIEZOELECTRICITY & MEMS:
RECENT ONGOING
Giant piezoelectric effect to improve MEMS devices
Thin film MEMS
The increase in the effective piezoelectric activity in a thin film results in a
dramatic improvement in performance. For example, energy harvesting using
such thin films will provide local power sources for wireless sensor nodes for
bridges, aircraft, and potentially for human-body sensors.
Piezoelectric polymers are being used as functional materials for
electromechanical transducers.
RF Oscillators based on Piezoelectric Aluminium Nitride MEMS
Resonators.(Conference: GeMiC 2014 - German Microwave Conference03/10/2014 - 03/12/2014 at Aachen,
Germany)
RECENT ADVANCES IN
PIEZOELECTRICITY
Piezoelectric Generator Harvesting Bike Vibrations Energy to
Supply Portable Devices.
Electricity Generation Due to Vibration of Moving Vehicles
Using Piezoelectric Effect.
Ferrite-Piezoelectric Heterostructures for Microwave and
Millimeter Devices: Recent Advances and Future Possibilities.
Recent Advances in Energy Harvesting Technologies for
Structural Health Monitoring Applications.
Recent advances in flexible and stretchable electronic devices
via electrospinning.

REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity
http://www.utwente.nl/ewi/tst/education/el-
bach/mandt/extra/downloads/general/piezo01.pdf
http://phys.org/news/2011-12-giant-piezoelectric-effect-mems-devices.html
http://spie.org/x48202.xml
https://www.americanpiezo.com/piezo-theory/generators.html
http://www.icrepq.com/icrepq-08/344-minazara.pdf
http://www.ripublication.com/aeee_spl/aeeev4n3spl_14.pdf
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jjspm/61/S1/61_S25/_article
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/smr/2014/410316/abs/
http://pubs.rsc.org/EN/content/articlehtml/2014/tc/c3tc31680g
http://iopscience.iop.org/0964-1726/23/3/033001
https://www.vde-verlag.de/proceedings-en/453585074.html

Er.Varun. S. Er.J.Sankar