Recently, piezoelectric devices, such as ultrasonic surgery, ultrasonic atomizer, and ultrasonic speaker, are analyzed and designed by finite element simulation methods. However, the discrepancy between the design and the experiment results of the device typically occurs due to the inaccuracy of the piezoelectric material properties. To improve the simulation accuracy, the material properties of the PZT ceramics were better refined using parameter estimation method. The material parameters are elastic stiffness c^E_ij and piezoelectric constant e_ij of PZT ceramics. The impedance curve characteristics for the LTE mode of PZT ceramics were calculated. The mismatch between the simulation and the experimental data were compared and minimized by a least square method. Finally, the simulated impedance data were compared with the experimental data for the various vibration modes of PZT ceramics and the optimized material properties of PZT ceramics were verified. To further verify the accuracy, this method was also applied to piezoelectric PMN-PT single crystals.

In this study, in order to develop composition ceramics for Acoustic Emission (abbreviated as AE) sensor application, the PZT system ceramics was fabricated by conventional solid state reaction method. When x=0.48, the density, electromechanical coupling factor(kp), piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ and piezoelectric voltage constant g₃₃ of the maximum values of 7.857 g/cm₃, 0.51, 190[pC/N], 52[10-₃mV/N] were obtained, respectively, suitable for AE sensor.

Ultrasound imaging by using piezoelectric materials, such as lead zirconium titanate (PZT) has been oneof the most preferred modes of imaging in the medical field due to its simple, low cost and non-ionizing radiation in comparison to other imaging techniques. Recently, the market demand for portable ultrasound is becoming larger with applications in developing countries, disaster area, military, and emergency purposes. However, most of ultrasound probes used is bulky and high power consumable, so unsuitable for such applications. In this study, the 3 layered ceramic specimen consisted of 128 pitches of 420 μm in width and 450 μm in thickness were prepared by using the Ti-rich PZT compositions co-fired at 1,050℃. Their electrical and ultrasound pulse-echo properties were investigated and compared to the single layer specimen. The 3 layered ultrasound probe showed 1.584 V of Vp-p, which is 3.2 times higher than single layered one, implying that it would allow effectively such a portable ultrasound probe system. The result were discussed in terms of higher capacitance, lower impedance and higher dielectric coefficient of the 3 layered ultrasound probe.