Design and simulation of [001]-textured PMN-PZT/epoxy 1-3 piezoelectric composites for acoustic transducer

Textured piezoelectric materials have become the key materials for the next generation of high-performance acoustic transducers because of their high piezoelectric constants and large electromechanical coupling coefficients. This paper presents the modeling and fabrication of the [001]-textured 0.4 Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃‒0.25PbZrO₃‒0.35PbTiO₃‒0.5% MnO₂ ceramics/epoxy 1-3 piezoelectric composite (T-Mn-PMN-PZT/epoxy 1-3 composite). The composite was analyzed using finite element method simulations, and prepared by dice and fill method for experimental investigation. The simulation results demonstrate that the composite design achieves optimal performance when the piezoelectric phase volume fraction is approximately 60 vol.% and the aspect ratio is around 0.6. The fabricated T-Mn-PMN-PZT/epoxy composite exhibits excellent electromechanical coupling properties (0.76‒0.80) yielding a significantly enhanced piezoelectric figure of merit (70893 × 10^‒15 m²/N), and maintains stable performance across a wide temperature range from ‒20°C to 80°C. The T-Mn-PMN-PZT/epoxy composite-based transducer demonstrated superior performance, achieving a 45% higher V_pp (6.75 V) and nearly double the bandwidth (31.1%) at ‒6 dB compared to T-Mn-PMN-PZT monolithic ceramic-based transducers. This composite demonstrates exceptional suitability for high-performance transducer applications.