Application of Ag–ceramic composite electrodes to low firing piezoelectric multilayer ceramic actuators

Ag–ceramic composite materials were investigated as low-cost internal electrodes for low firing piezoelectric multilayer ceramic actuators (MLCA). Ag–ceramic pastes were prepared by adding Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–Pb(Zr0.475,Ti0.525)O3 (PMNZT) ceramic powders to a commercial Ag paste in the range of 0 to 50 wt.%. PMNZT/Ag–PMNZT multilayered laminates were fabricated using tape casting and subsequently cofired at 925°C for 10 h. The addition of PMNZT into Ag electrode decreased the thermal shrinkage mismatch between the composite layers, which led to improve mass producibility of MLCA through reducing delamination probability during cofiring process.