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Commercial and Civilian Market Expands The piezoelectric device market sector is not just a sin- gle sector, but rather comprises a number of sectors with distinctly different characteristics. The sectors of most sig- nificance are: • high production volume, piezoelectric device sector consisting of generic piezoelectric devices such as actua- tors, motors, sensors, accelerators, transducers for ultra- sonic medical imaging and non-destructive testing acoustic devices, Lengevin actuators for ultrasonic welding and cleaning, ceramic resonators, and miscellaneous types of devices designed for special applications such as trans- formers, vibration and noise cancellation in structures limited to different grades of piezoelectric crystals, ceram- ics such as PZT, PVDF and composites; • sonars for military and civil use; and. • niche applications such as energy harvesting, where piezoelectric devices such as generators offer a unique competitive advantage. Piezo devices also include ultrasonic motors (USMs), which offer a high potential for miniaturization. These actuators produce no magnetic field since the excitation is quasi-electrostatic. Through their specific advantages compared to conventional electro-magnetic motors, USMs fill a gap in certain actuator applications. A key advantage of USMs over electromagnetic motors is their compactness, i.e. their high stall torque-mass ratio and high torque at low rotational speed, often making speed- reducing gears superfluous. Additionally, with no voltage applied, an inherent holding torque is present due to the frictional driving mechanism. It is also worthwhile to mention that their compactness and the high frequency electrical excitation make quick responses possible. Innovative Research and Products (iRAP) had published an industry and market analysis, focusing on key piezo- electric ceramic, polymer and ceramic/polymer devices and provided the size and growth of different market trends and industry analysis. The report provides a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the markets according to piezoelectric devices, applications and regions. Global Industry Structure The global piezoelectric ceramic, polymer ceramic/poly- mer composite devices industry is characterized by about sixty producers and suppliers of these elements and hun- dreds of piezoelectric device producers. Although, the largest users had been the military for applications such as sonar, sonobuoys and hydrophones, commercial and con- sumer applications have now taken over the lead. With an increase in industry automation, along with a consumer taste for sophisticated gadgets, there has been a substantial rise in the use of piezoelectric devices. There also has been a surge in applications, e.g., medical electronics, ultrason- ics and sensors. The emerging markets are in computer- related areas such as micro-actuators for hard disks and piezoelectric transformers for laptops. Therefore, the mil- itary use has been declining at the expense of industrial and consumer-related applications. Over the next several years, there should be significant growth opportunities for piezoelectric actuators in the biomedical, semiconductor, data storage, aerospace and automation arenas. A well-organized piezoelectric motor business with coordinated, integrated organizations in key regions of the world, a diversified but synergistic product offering, technical expertise in key piezoelectric technolo- gies, and the ability to provide value-added piezoelectric solutions is particularly well-positioned to exert a highly significant influence in the industry and to achieve robust growth. This industry segment contains many relatively small companies as well as piezoelectric-focused organiza- tions within some very large companies; in such a situa- tion, a company that provides global piezoelectric solu- tions across multiple, key market segments is in a superi- or competitive position in the marketplace. et dynamics (continued) Ever since nanotechnology and biotechnology began being well funded by industry and governments, the inter- est in piezo motion technology has steadily risen. The need of nano-imprinting, scanning microscopy, microlith- ography and automated alignment has opened new mar- ket areas in piezo driven nanopositioning technology, par- allel metrology, parallel kinematics, active trajectory con- trol, and covers new control algorithm for vibration sup- pression and tracking error elimination and their benefits for the users. Companies targeting customer base include largely of academic institutes, government and research laboratories focused in nano fabrication, fiber and inte- grated optics, photonics, semiconductors, data storage, microscopy and metrology, where nanometer level posi- tioning is of prime importance. Many companies are also OEM customer oriented. 32 MTR May 2011
