Method of manufacturing a laminated ceramic device

Abstract

Laminated ceramic devices useful as an actuator or other device responsive to electrostrictive effects or photoelectric effects are manufactured by a method which includes the steps of forming an internal electrode on each of a plurality of unbaked ceramic sheets. Each of the internal electrodes is provided with a notched area for defining a so-called future space. A plurality of the unbaked ceramic sheets is assembled to form a laminate whereby the notched areas defining the future spaces are alternately located on two different sides of the laminate with the alternate notched areas being vertically aligned. The assembled plurality of ceramic sheets is then fired and the internal electrodes baked to thereby definitively form spaces defined by the notched areas which define the so-called future or void spaces. The resulting formed spaces are thereby alternatively located on different sides of the laminate. The device is completed by connecting first and second groups of alternating internal electrodes with respective external electrodes arranged along the different sides opposite to the corresponding respective spaces. As a result, each of the external electrodes is separated from the group of alternating internal electrodes to which it is not electrically connected by the resulting corresponding spaces. As a result, the laminated ceramic device is not or is less subject to concentration of stress due to uneven distribution of strain caused by application of an electric field whereby the durability of the laminated ceramic device is improved.