Using output voltage of charge drivers to reduce hysteresis of piezoelectric actuators

Proposed is a new method to reduce the hysteresis of piezoelectric actuators. A reference piezoelectric actuator driven by a charge controller was used to obtain the driving voltage, which was applied to a target actuator via a suitable voltage amplifier. Experiments showed that a reduction of 84-90% at frequencies from 0.05 to 10 Hz was obtained compared with the direct voltage drive method. This method has the ability of affording very high voltage for bulk piezoelectric actuators to reach maximum elongation, and an easy common ground wiring which is feasible for practical piezoelectric element driving circuits, compared with the traditional charge drive for eliminating piezoelectric element´s hysteresis.