Fabrication and Finite Element Analysis of Piezoelectric Thick-Film Micro-Actuator for Hard Disk Drives

A novel thick-film PMN-PZT micro-actuator used in hard disk drive for precision precise positioning of magnetic head has been designed, analyzed and fabricated. This kind of multi-layer device is made by tape-casting technique, and its inner Ag/Pd electrodes are made in screen-printing process. It is also simulated by finite element method to inspect its driving mechanism. The results show that a quad-layer PMN-PZT element has (0.921 6 μm) tip displacement and high resonance frequency up to (19.638 kHz,) if a ±30 V external voltage applies to it.