This study is in progress to investigate the development of piezoelectric ceramic materials which are utilized for hard-drive applications like ultrasonic motors (USM). A USM is an actuator which uses mechanical vibrations of ultrasonic range as its drive source. Piezoelectric ceramics are used as the vibrational source to provide the ultrasonic waves. For these piezoelectric ceramics, it is desirable to combine high values of some electrical properties like mechanical quality factor (Q_m), planar electromechanical coupling factor (k_p) and piezoelectric strain constant (d₃₃) and also low dielectric loss (tan δ) is needed because these high-power devices usually operate at their resonant frequency in transformation between electrical and mechanical energy.
In this study, the effects of compositional modifications and processing conditions on the piezoelectric properties of lead-based ceramics were determined and a piezoelectric (ultrasonic) motor will be constructed by using the developed ceramics and its performance will be characterized in terms of speed, torque and power.