Laminated piezoelectric element, liquid droplet ejection head using same, and image forming apparatus comprising same

A laminated piezoelectric element, comprising a plurality of layers including first electrodes, piezoelectric material bodies, and second electrodes, wherein:

• the layers are laminated in order of the first electrode, the piezoelectric material body, the second electrode, and the piezoelectric material body;
• a plurality of active parts of the laminated piezoelectric element, where the piezoelectric material bodies are capable of actively expanding and contracting when a voltage is applied to the first electrode and the second electrode that are mutually opposing across the piezoelectric material body, are two-dimensionally arranged in a row direction and a column direction wherein,
• the first electrodes and second electrodes are arranged to intersect obliquely;
• the first electrodes are common to the plurality of active parts in the row direction and the second electrodes are common to the plurality of active parts in the column direction;
• the first electrodes arranged in the row direction further comprise two parallel row electrodes to form a row electrode pair that activates the active parts together with a column electrode pair;
• and
• the second electrodes arranged in the column direction further comprise two parallel column electrodes to form the column electrode pair that activates the active parts together with the row electrode pair wherein
• portions of the two parallel row electrodes forming the row electrode pair corresponding to the active parts are arranged to alternately correspond to the plurality of active parts in terms of the row direction;
• portions of the two parallel column electrodes forming the column electrode pair corresponding to the active parts are arranged to alternately correspond to the plurality of active parts in terms of column direction;
• and
• electrode pairs formed by the first electrodes and the second electrodes are not only arranged two-dimensionally in the row direction and the column direction but also superimposed to each other in a lamination direction that is perpendicular to the row direction and the column direction, in such a manner that each of the layers is independently drivable.