Abstract
A cantilever type piezoceramic vibration sensor was developed that could make up for the short-comings of current vibration sensors, such as high price, low sensitivity, and complex structure. For the design, in conjunction with piezoelectric constitutive equations, we derived full analytic response equations of the piezoelectric bimorph sensor to external forces. The external forces were supposed to take the form of either step or sinusoidal force. Based on the results, actual piezoelectric vibration sensors were fabricated and tested for verification of the theoretical results. Further, comparison of the performance of the developed sensor was made with that of a commercially available representative vibration sensor so that quantitative evaluation of its sensitivity could be made. The sensor developed in this work showed excellent sensitivity and thermal stability in addition to the merits of simple structure and low fabrication cost in comparison with conventional mass-loaded piezoelectric sensors.
