Patent ID: 8124047

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a sintered piezoelectric body comprising the steps of: forming a piezoelectric body from a piezoelectric material comprising calcined powder particles having an ABO 3 piezoelectric composition, wherein A comprises Li, Na and K and wherein B comprises Nb and Ta; performing a first heating step of heating the piezoelectric body to a predetermined constant holding temperature, which is a temperature immediately before grain growth of the powder particles occurs, in a range of 850 to 1000° C., and holding the piezoelectric body at the predetermined constant holding temperature for a predetermined holding time in a range of 1 to 20 hours; and performing a second heating step, immediately after completion of the predetermined holding time of the first heating step, of sintering the piezoelectric body by raising the temperature from the predetermined constant holding temperature of the first step to a sintering temperature, and holding the sintering temperature for a predetermined time to form the sintered piezoelectric body.