Optimal design of resonant piezoelectric buzzer from a perspective of vibration-absorber theory

In this paper, an optimization technique is presented for the design of piezoelectric buzzers. This design technique aims at finding the optimal configuration of the coupled cavity and diaphragm structure to maximize the sound pressure output. Instead of measuring the material constants of the piezoelectric ceramic and the metal diaphragm, an “added-mass method” is developed to estimate the equivalent electromechanical parameters of the system on which an analogous circuit can be established. The electrical impedance and on-axis sound pressure level of the piezoelectric buzzer can be simulated by solving the loop equations of the electromechanoacoustical analogous circuit. An interesting finding of this research is that the nature of the piezoelectric buzzer bears remarkable resemblance to that in the dynamic vibration absorber theory. Much physical insight can be gained by exploiting this resemblance in search of the optimal configuration. According to the system characteristic equation, a design chart was devised to “lock” the critical frequency at which the system delivers the maximal output. On the basis of the analogous circuit and the vibration absorber theory, an optimal design was found with constrained optimization formalism. Experiments were conducted to justify the optimal design. The results showed that the performance was significantly improved using the optimal design over the original design. Design guidelines for the piezoelectric buzzers are summarized.