ABSTRACT
Being motivated by multiple junior engineers’ request, Uchino tried to elucidate a comprehensive introduction to piezoelectric losses in this book. The author is rather confident that I could provide the reader the basic knowledge on (1) the importance of three losses (dielectric, elastic, and piezoelectric losses), (2) how to measure these three losses by using various characterization techniques, (3) how to develop high-power piezoelectric materials, and (4) how to design the drive and power supply. However, the author is not satisfactory with the clarification of the microscopic loss mechanism in piezoelectrics. Though the determination of real parameters such as permittivity, elastic compliance, and piezoelectric constant is reasonably established via phenomenology, the estimation of the imaginary parameters (dielectric, elastic, and piezoelectric losses) is still very primitive. We still have many research topics remaining for the future generation. This final chapter is devoted to the reader’s future activities on this high-power piezoelectric area.
