PIEZO ACTUATORS

The 50-page “Piezo Ceramic Actuators and Custom Subassemblies” catalog from PI Ceramic, a division of Physik Instrumente (PI), specifies actuators such as the Picma chip mini, the low-voltage Picma ceramic insulated multilayer, and the scanner tube, multilayer bender, multiaxis shear, and high-force stack and tubular types. The resource provides a tutorial on the fundamental aspects of the devices, including materials, dynamic behavior, displacement modes, mechanical considerations, and open- and closed-loop operation. The actuators have applications in such areas as data storage, micromanufacturing, medical analytical equipment, semiconductor test and metrology, photonics alignment and packaging, and optics, lasers and interferometry.