PIEZOELECTRIC COMPOSITE MATERIAL

摘要

The present invention provides a method for producing a composite material comprising an array of piezoelectric fibres, the method comprising: (a) providing: (a1) a plurality of first strips comprising a piezoelectric material or a precursor to a piezoelectric material, and a first carrier, and (a2) a plurality of second strips comprising a decomposable material, and a second carrier; (b) placing said pluralities of said first and second strips alternately on top of one another to form a stack in which at least a portion of said first strips is separated from adjacent first strips by a second strip; (c) a heating step comprising heating said stack to remove said first and second carriers and said decomposable material; (d) impregnating said stack with a filler material to form a composite stack of piezoelectric strips; and (e) cutting said stack to form a composite material comprising an array of piezoelectric fibres. In an alternative method the cutting (e) is performed before the heating step (c). The methods allow for the production of fibre arrays with mean fibre spacing of 5 ym or less.