Electrostrictive actuators
AssigneeAVX Corporation
InventorJohn Galvagni
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Abstract
An improved method of forming electrostrictive actuators or capacitors is disclosed. A stack of green ceramic sheets is formed, a surface of the sheets including areas of electrode forming material and other areas of heat dispersible material. The electrodes of opposite polarity are exposed at opposite surfaces of the stack and areas of dispersible material intervene between the exposed edges of the electrode ink margins. An actuator fabricated in accordance with the method may be terminated without fear of shorting between adjacent layers and the resultant actuator will be essentially free of dielectric bonding whereby, when used as an actuator, a high degree of expansion will be achieved. The invention is further directed to a preform fabricated in accordance with the method of the invention.
Claims6
The method of manufacturing a multilayer ceramic actuator or capacitor comprising the steps of providing a plurality of equal size green ceramic sheets, covering a surface of such sheets with a coating comprising discreet areas of electrode forming and pseudo electrode ink, said electrode ink areas extending to at least a first margin of said sheets and said pseudo electrode ink areas extending to at least a second margin of said sheets, forming a stack of a plurality of said sheets such that said first margins of alternate layers are exposed at a first surface of said stack and said first margins of the layers intervening between said alternate layers are exposed at a second surface of said stack, said second margins being interposed at said surfaces between said first margins, thereafter heating and sintering said stack, and thereafter applying conductive terminations to said first and second surfaces respectively.
As a new article of manufacture a preform for the manufacture of a ceramic actuator or capacitor comprising a stack of a plurality of equal size green ceramic sheets, a first surface area of said sheets being coated with electrode forming material extending to a first margin of said sheets, remaining areas of said surface being coated with pseudo electrode ink, said pseudo ink areas extending to at least a second margin of said sheets, said sheets being arranged in said stack such that said first margins of alternate sheets are exposed at a first surface of said stack and said first margins of the layers intervening between said alternate layers are exposed at a second surface of said stack, said second margins being interposed between said first margins of said surfaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.