Voltage-Induced Snap-Through of an Asymmetrically Laminated, Piezoelectric, Thin-Film Diaphragm Micro-Actuator—Part 1: Experimental Studies and Mathematical Modeling

A piezoelectric thin-film microactuator in the form of an asymmetrically laminated diaphragm is developed as an intracochlear hearing aid. Experimentally, natural frequencies of the microactuator bifurcate with respect to an applied bias voltage. To qualitatively explain the findings, we model the lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) diaphragm as a doubly curved, asymmetrically laminated, piezoelectric shallow shell defined on a rectangular domain with simply supported boundary conditions. The von Karman type nonlinear strain–displacement relationship and the Donnell–Mushtari–Vlasov theory are used to calculate the electric enthalpy and elastic strain energy. Balance of virtual work between two top electrodes is also considered to incorporate an electric-induced displacement field that has discontinuity of in-plane strain components. A set of discretized equations of motion are obtained through a variational approach.