ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews piezoelectric composites, focusing on the manufacturing methods for different piezoelectric applications and discusses the general definition and concept of piezoelectric composites. It describes the fabrication methods of composite transducers that are suitable for various piezoelectric applications. Piezoelectric materials are being used in a variety of fields, including industrial, medical, defense, and aerospace applications. Piezoelectric composites are a class of functional materials consisting of piezoelectric active materials and nonpiezoelectric passive polymers, mechanically attached together to form different connectivities. A useful guideline for the selection of the appropriate piezoelectric materials is figure-of-merit, which depends on the applications. The major drawback of a piezoelectric bimorph that consists of monolithic piezoelectric layers is its brittle nature. The 2-2 connectivity has been used for various sensor, transducer, and actuator applications, including multilayer actuators, bimorph actuators or sensors, piezoelectric stack actuators, and medical linear array transducers.
