Performance characteristics of piezoelectric polymer flexure mode devices

The design theory for a variety of piezoelectric polymer flexure mode devices is presented. Resonance and deflection behavior are discussed as well as output characteristics. Among the types of devices described are the unimorph, the bimorph, and the multimorph. The effects of electrodes and bonding layers are included in the analysis. Nonuniform polarization in the piezoelectric layers alters device performance. Useful flexure mode devices can be constructed from nonuniformly polarized piezoelectric polymers. Methods of preparing bimorphs in a single sheet are described, including temperature-gradient and field-reversal poling. Experimental results on a variety of flexure mode devices are compared with the theory. Applications of these flexure mode devices are also surveyed.