The present disclosure relates to a piezoelectric vibration member, a method of manufacturing the same, and a piezoelectric vibrator.
A piezoelectric vibrator is an apparatus generating vibrations having a certain frequency through a piezoelectric vibration member vibrating due to a piezoelectric phenomenon occurring in the piezoelectric vibration member when voltage is applied thereto.
Since the piezoelectric vibrator has a stable vibrational frequency, such a device has been used in several core components providing a reference signal level as well as in an oscillation circuit of a computer or a communications device.
A piezoelectric vibration member formed of crystal includes a vibration substrate using the crystal as a base material and an electrode disposed on the vibration substrate, wherein the vibration substrate may have various shapes depending on required physical properties.
When a piezoelectric vibration member in a thickness shear vibration mode is formed so that a thickness of the vibration substrate is gradually reduced from a central portion thereof toward end portions thereof, a damping amount of vibration displacement in the end portions is increased, whereby an effect in which vibration energy is trapped in the central portion of the piezoelectric vibration member may be improved and frequency characteristics such as a CI value, a Q value, and the like, may be improved. An example of a shape of the piezoelectric vibration member that may accomplish a vibration energy trapping effect may include a convex shape in which a convex curved surface is formed as a main surface, a bevel shape in which a space between a flat and thick central portion and an edge of an end portion is formed as an inclined surface, a mesa shape in which a central portion is flat and a surrounding portion of the central portion is thin, and the like.
In a case in which the thicknesses of the thick, flat central portion and the thin surrounding portion are rapidly changed in the mesh shaped piezoelectric vibration member, an energy trapping effect may be decreased, and electrode connectivity may deteriorate. Therefore, a piezoelectric vibration member capable of solving these problems has been required.