Thin PZT materials for large deformation interdigitated acutators: Simulation & experimental validation

This paper introduces for the first time a 100um thick PZT actuator driven by single sided interdigitated electrodes that achieves a deformation of 15 μm which benefits from the piezoelectric nonlinearity and the reduced stiffness of the substrate. The deformation was at first simulated using a finite element model. The actuator was later fabricated using a standard lithographic process. The characterization followed on using a white light interferometer and a laser Doppler vibrometer.