Patent ID: 7244389

Claim:
A method of manufacturing piezoelectric ceramics comprising the steps of: disposing a green compact comprising a piezoelectric ceramic powder on a supporting member whose surface has porosity of 5% or less and flatness 20 μm or less; and firing the green compact while contacting with the surface of the supporting member, wherein the green compact comprising a piezoelectric ceramic powder of a perovskite compound containing Pb is fired while being inserted into a sealed space, which satisfies the relations represented by the following expressions (1) and (2): 1.0001×( V 2+ V 3)≦ V 1≦4.0000×( V 2+ V 3) (1) 0.02 ×V 3 ×V 2 ≦50× V 3 (2) where V 1 denotes a volume of a sealed space, V 2 denotes a volume of a supporting member and V 3 denotes a volume of a green compact, when a supporting member having surface roughness Ra of 1 μm or less, flatness of 20 μm or less and a volume V 2 is placed on the green compact having a volume V 3 and they are inserted into the sealed space having a volume V 1 .