Design and static modeling of a semiconductor polymeric piezoelectric microactuator

The design of a semicircular polymeric piezoelectric actuator is presented, the models for its deflection and force are derived, and the results of the experiments used to verify the models are reported. The design is a polymeric piezoelectric bimorph formed in a semicircular shape instead of the standard straight cantilever beam bimorph design. The deflection model is adopted from the straight cantilever beam model and relates the free deflection as a function of the applied voltage field. The force model is developed using Castigliano´s second theorem. Two experiments were conducted to verify the model: force-voltage and force-deflection. The models show that a bimorph formed in a semicircular shape produces significantly more force than a straight cantilever beam bimorph of the same length without a significant sacrifice in deflection