What is Piezoelectricity?
26-08-2023
12:24 PM
1 min read
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Overview:
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) recently developed piezoelectric MEMS (micro electro mechanical system) technology for underwater communication.
About Piezoelectricity:
- Piezoelectricity (also called the piezoelectric effect) is the appearance of an electrical potential (a voltage, in other words) across the sides of a crystal when you subject it to mechanical stress.
- In the reverse piezoelectric effect, a crystal becomes mechanically stressed (deformed in shape) when a voltage is applied across its opposite faces.
- Thus, Piezoelectric materials allow the conversion of energy from the mechanical domain to the electrical domain and vice versa.
- It is due to the spontaneous separation of charge with certain crystal structures under the right conditions.
- There are a wide variety of materials which exhibit this phenomenon, including natural quartz crystals, semi-crystalline polyvinylidene polymer, polycrystalline piezoceramic, bone and even wood.
- Applications:
- They can be used to create various sensors or actuators.
- Piezoelectric transducers are common in ultrasonic applications, such as intrusion detectors and alarms.
- Piezoelectric devices are employed at AF (audio frequencies) as pickups, microphones, earphones, beepers, and buzzers.
- In wireless applications, piezoelectricity makes it possible to use crystals and ceramics as oscillators that generate predictable and stable signals at RF (radio frequencies).
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Q1) What are Piezoelectric materials?
Piezoelectric materials are materials that have the ability to generate internal electrical charge from applied mechanical stress. The term piezo is Greek for "push."