Patent ID: 7431785

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a monolithic piezoelectric ceramic actuator part which has a plurality of piezoelectric ceramic layers and spaced internal electrode layers disposed in said piezoelectric ceramic actuator, wherein said piezoelectric ceramic making up said piezoelectric ceramic layers is formed of a perovskite compound oxide expressed by the general formula of ABO 3 , and comprises at least Pb for the A site component and comprises Ti or Ti and Zr for the B site component and said internal electrode layers contain Ag as a primary component; said method comprising: providing a piezoelectric ceramic powdered raw material wherein the molar quantity of said A site component is reduced by about 0.5 mol % to 5.0 mol % from that of a stoichiometric composition and the average valence of said B site component of the ceramic raw material is greater than that of the stoichiometric composition and is greater than 4.000 and less than 4.100; fabricating a layered article with said piezoelectric ceramic powdered raw material; and sintering said layered article within an atmosphere wherein the oxygen concentration is about 5% by volume or less but more than 0% by volume.