Piezoelectric Actuators
Reliable Piezo Actuators with
Piezoelectric PICMA® actuators
Lever amplified system
Piezo nanopositioning system
with parallel kinematics and
38 displacement sensors
Many fields of application benefit from this
Low Operating Voltage: PICMA®
PICMA® multilayer actuators are constructed
using tape technology and are subsequently
sintered in the multilayer co-firing process.
The special PICMA® PZT ceramic and its
manufacturing technique produce an ideal
combination of stiffness, capacitance,
displacement, temperature stability and
lifetime, for example. The typical operating
voltage of the PICMA® multilayer actuators
is 100 to 120 V.
PICMA® piezo actuators are the only multi-
layer actuators in the world with ceramic
encapsulation. This technology protects the
PICMA® actuators from environmental influ-
ences, in particular humidity, and ensures
their extremely high reliability and perfor-
mance even under harsh industrial operating
conditions. The lifetime of PICMA® actuators
is significantly better than that of piezo
actuators with conventional polymer encap-
sulation.
Since PICMA® piezo actuators do not require
additional polymer insulation and can be
operated up to 150 °C they are ideal for
use in high vacuum. They even work, at a
reduced travel, in the cryogenic temperature
range.
W W W. P I C E R A M I C . C O M
reliability: Precision engineering and
precision machining as well as switches and
pneumatic or hydraulic valves. Further
applications can be found in the fields of
active vibration control, nanotechnology,
metrology, optics and interferometry.
Preloaded Actuators – Levers –
Nanopositioning
PICMA® piezo actuators from PI Ceramic are
the key component for nanopositioning
systems from Physik Instrumente (PI). They
are supplied in different levels of integration:
As simple actuators with position sensor as
an optional extra, encased with or without
preload, with lever amplification for increa-
sed travel, right through to high-perfor-
mance nanopositioning systems where
piezo actuators drive up to six axes by
means of zero-wear and frictionless flexure
guidings.
What they all have in common is a motion
resolution in the nanometer range, long
lifetimes and outstanding reliability. The
combination of PICMA® actuators, flexure
guiding and precision measurement
systems produces nanopositioning devices
in the highest performance class.
The fields of application range from
semiconductor technology, metrology,
microscopy, photonics through to biotech-
nology, aerospace, astronomy and cryogenic
environments.