ABSTRACT

From a viewpoint of commercialization, capacitor dielectrics dominate at present, followed by piezoelectric vibrators such as buzzers and speakers. Among the other classes of devices, sales are relatively low. A totally new application area of ferroelectric devices is only the "piezoelectric actuator." This chapter describes the detailed market share of piezoelectric actuators. A table summarizes the developments of ceramic actuators in the United States, Japan, and Europe. The chapter considers the reliability issue in terms of reproducibility and lifetime with respect to materials, device designs, and drive/control techniques. Safety systems, which can both monitor the fatigue or symptom of failure of materials/devices and stop the equipment safely without causing serious problems, are also desired. Finally, the author presents his personal business philosophy on how to develop bestselling devices, from his 35 years of academic experiences and 20 years of company executive experiences.