A study on ring-type lead zirconate titanate ceramics for accelerometer application

Abstract

The article describes the performance of ring-type lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics for accelerometer applications. In-house developed modified PZT powder was used for the fabrication of a ring-shaped sample. The samples were sintered at 1250°C for 2 h, levelled, electrode and poled for 30 min. Piezoelectric charge constant (d₃₃), dielectric constant (K), loss factor (tan δ) and Curie temperature (T_c) of the sample measured were 550 pC/N, 1752, 0.03 and 329°C, respectively. Displacement versus applied voltage showed 1.06 µm at a driving voltage of 1800 V. Saturation polarisation (P_r), maximum polarisation (P_max) and coercive field (Ec) measured were 25.2 µC/cm², 33.5 µC/cm² and 8.5 kV/cm, respectively. The response of PZT ring samples in terms of output voltage was measured at different acceleration ‘ɡ’ and frequencies. The output voltage versus ‘ɡ’ graph shows very much linearity for all the test frequencies (500 Hz, 1 kHz, 5 kHz and 10 kHz). Maximum output voltage of 1885 mV was measured at 10 kHz and 20 ɡ. Linear graph and better output of the ring samples imply that the developed PZT samples are very much suitable for accelerometer applications.