Piezoelectric properties of fine grain PZT materials

The piezoelectric properties of PZT materials were experimentally studied as a function of grain size (0.2 to 2.5 /spl mu/m) at low frequencies (<20 MHz) and vs. frequency (10 to 100 MHz) for a single fine grain size (1.0 /spl mu/m). The piezoelectric properties were shown to decrease with decreasing grain size below 0.7 /spl mu/m. The fine grain size properties vs. frequency were compared to commercially available materials. The new fine grain materials were found to be superior to commercial materials at very high frequencies. Also, it was possible to construct resonators of the new ceramics at much higher frequencies than was possible for the conventional materials.