Abstract: A wire-free multilayer biomorph device is provided where the layers are bonded without use of adhesive. The device includes a plurality of stacked perforated metal plates with interposed transductive assembly layers. The perforated metal plates and transductive assembly layers are bonded by a conductive metal ink that is subject to a thermal cycle process. Electrical connection of the perforated metal plates and transductive assembly are realized through structural connectors thru-connectors thereby obviating the need for wiring.

Abstract: An energy harvesting system includes a plurality of energy converters connected to multiple ambient energy sources, respectively, receiving energy from the multiple ambient energy sources, and converting the received energy into electrical energy. The system also includes an electrical energy buffer receiving and collecting electrical energy from the energy converters, and combining the collected electrical energy to have a predetermined power level and a constant voltage converter receiving the combined electrical energy from the electrical energy buffer, and converting the received electrical energy into driving power of a power level usable by a load. The system further includes an electrical energy storage receiving the driving power from the constant voltage converter, storing the received driving power, and providing the stored driving power to the load.

Abstract: A piezoelectric actuator includes: a piezoelectric element; and a case including a base body and a tubular body, the case being configured to receive the piezoelectric element. The base body includes a bottom plate portion and an annular projection disposed upright on the bottom plate portion. The annular projection includes an upper-side first region having a relatively small outside diameter and a lower-side second region having a relatively large outside diameter, and includes a stepped outer surface defined by an outer surface of the first region and an outer surface of the second region that are connected with each other. The first region is inserted inside the tubular body, an end face of the tubular body abuts on an upper end of the second region, and the tubular body and the second region is joined to each other.

Abstract: A vibrator device includes a vibration element including a vibration portion and a fixed portion, a supporting member to which the fixed portion is attached to support the vibration element, and a first substrate to which the supporting member is attached, the supporting member includes a attaching portion attached to the first substrate, and A1?A2 is satisfied in a case where an area of a rectangular region including the fixed portion is A1 and an area of a rectangular region including the attaching portion is A2 in a plan view seen from a thickness direction of the vibration element.

Abstract: A piezoelectric sensor and a manufacturing method thereof, a method for recognizing a fingerprint, and an electronic device are disclosed. The piezoelectric sensor includes a first electrode layer and a second electrode layer which are opposite to each other and a piezoelectric layer. The piezoelectric layer is between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer and includes a plurality of piezoelectric units arranged at intervals and an insulation layer between adjacent piezoelectric units of the plurality of piezoelectric units. The first electrode layer includes a plurality of sub-electrodes corresponding to the plurality of piezoelectric units, or the second electrode layer includes a plurality of sub-electrodes corresponding to the plurality of piezoelectric units; or both the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer include a plurality of sub-electrodes corresponding to the plurality of piezoelectric units.

Abstract: A dielectric elastomer vibration system includes a dielectric elastomer vibrator with a dielectric elastomer layer and a pair of electrode layers, and a power supply device producing a potential difference across the electrode layers. The vibrator exhibits various modes or regions of relationship between potential difference and deformation induced by the potential difference: a high-response region in which a relatively large deformation is induced; a low-response region of lower-potential difference in which a relatively small deformation is induced; and a low-response region of higher-potential difference in which a relatively small deformation is induced or in which a break point of the dielectric elastomer layer is included. The power supply device produces the potential difference by applying across the electrode layers a vibration signal voltage, which is generated by combining an AC voltage with a bias DC voltage corresponding to a potential difference falling in the high-response region.

Abstract: An ultrasonic transducer and a method for producing an ultrasonic transducer are disclosed wherein the ultrasonic transducer has outstanding media resistance and a simpler construction by reducing the number of individual parts, so that the ultrasonic transducer can be produced in a fully-automated production process. The ultrasonic transducer, particularly for measurement of fluid volumes, can include a housing in which a contact element and a piezoceramic are arranged, wherein the piezoceramic includes two electrodes of differing polarity which are attached to different sides of the piezoceramic, wherein contact areas of the two electrodes for making electrical contact are disposed on a same side of the piezoceramic and the contact element includes at least two contact sections of differing polarity which are in electrically conducting contact with the contact areas of the two electrodes of corresponding polarity.

Abstract: An object is to provide a piezoelectric body having a value indicating a higher performance index (d33, e33, C33, g33, and/or k2) than aluminum nitride not doped with any element. The piezoelectric body is represented by a chemical formula Al1-X-YMgXMYN where X+Y is less than 1, X is in a range of more than 0 and less than 1, and Y is in a range of more than 0 and less than 1.

Abstract: Form internal electrodes with a metal whose silver content is 80 percent by mass or higher, and also constitute piezoelectric ceramic layers with a piezoelectric ceramic whose primary component is an alkaline niobate having a perovskite structure and which contains at least one type of alkaline earth metal selected from calcium and barium, as well as silver, wherein the total content of the alkaline earth metal is 0.2 percent by mol or higher but lower than 2.0 percent by mol when the element content in the B sites of the alkaline niobate represents 100 percent by mol, and wherein the piezoelectric ceramic layers each contain at least one sintered grain 41 that has silver-segregated regions 42 inside and the silver-segregated regions 42 have a long diameter of 10 nm or smaller.

Abstract: Aspects of this disclosure relate to an elastic wave device. The elastic wave device includes a sub-wavelength thick piezoelectric layer, an interdigital transducer electrode on the piezoelectric layer, and a high velocity layer configured to inhibit an elastic wave from leaking from the piezoelectric layer at anti-resonance.

Abstract: The vibrator device includes a vibrator element, a relay substrate, a base, an element-side bonding member for bonding the vibrator element and the relay substrate to each other, and a base-side bonding member for bonding the base and the relay substrate to each other. Further, the element-side bonding member has a first bonding member and s second bonding member arranged side by side along an A axis. Further, an X axis of a first quartz crystal substrate provided to the vibrator element is parallel to the A axis, and a second quartz crystal substrate provided to the relay substrate is a Z-cut quartz crystal substrate.

Abstract: A vibrating device includes a vibrating element, a support, and a connector. The vibrating element includes a vibrating body that is tubular and includes a first opening end surface and a second opening end surface. The support extends in an axial direction and supports the vibrating body, the axial direction being a direction connecting the first opening end surface and the second opening end surface of the vibrating body. The connector connects the vibrating body and the support to each other. The vibrating body vibrates in a breathing vibration mode to generate a first node and a second node on the vibrating element at different positions in the axial direction. The connector is positioned between the first node and the second node.

Abstract: A fluid-induced vibration energy harvesting apparatus with a non-rotating bluff body is provided. The apparatus does not use a common design method of rigidly securing a bluff body to an elastic beam in a design of the bluff body, but adopts a manner of connecting the bluff body and the elastic beam through a rotating shaft and a connecting shaft. Because a kinematic pair at a connection position is a rotating pair, the bluff body will only vibrate transversely and will not rotate, thereby achieving an effect of increasing an amplitude at the same frequency, and finally realizing an increase of converted electric energy and improving the conversion efficiency.

Abstract: The vibrator element includes a vibrating arm provided with an arm part, and a weight part which has a weight, the weight is provided with at least one processing scar, when an axis which overlaps a center in a width direction of the vibrating arm, and which extends along an extending direction of the vibrating arm is a central axis, and an axis which overlaps a centroid of the vibrating arm, and which extends along the extending direction of the vibrating arm is a centroid axis, the processing scar is formed in at least an area at an opposite side to the centroid axis, and S1<S2 an area of the processing scar located at the centroid axis side with respect to the central axis is S1, and an area of the processing scar located at an opposite side to the centroid axis with respect to the central axis is S2.

Abstract: An acoustic imaging system coupled to a sensing plate to define an imaging surface. The acoustic imaging system includes an array of piezoelectric acoustic transducers coupled to the sensing plate opposite the imaging surface and formed using a thin-film manufacturing process over an application-specific integrated circuit that, in turn, is configured to leverage the array of piezoelectric actuators to generate an image of an object at least partially wetting to the imaging surface.

Abstract: A micromechanical component. The micromechanical component includes: a mount; a displaceable part; and a first serpentine spring and a second serpentine spring which is embodied mirror-symmetrically with respect to the first serpentine spring in terms of a first plane of symmetry; a first actuator device and a second actuator device being embodied in such a way that by way of the first actuator device and the second actuator device, periodic deformations, mirror-symmetrical in terms of the first plane of symmetry, of the first serpentine spring and of the second serpentine spring are excitable; the micromechanical component also encompassing a first torsion spring and a second torsion spring that each extend along a rotation axis; and the displaceable part being displaceable, at least by way of the periodic and mirror-symmetrical deformations of the first serpentine spring and of the second serpentine spring, around the rotation axis with respect to the mount.

Abstract: A vibrator device includes a vibrating body having obverse and reverse principal surfaces and a side surface connecting the obverse and reverse principal surfaces to each other, a package configured to house the vibrating body, and a bonding material configured to fix the vibrating body to the package, wherein the vibrating body has a coupling part including a recess recessed from the side surface toward a center of the principal surfaces, and a protrusion protruding from a side surface of the recess, the protrusion is one of breaking-off parts with which a plurality of the vibrating bodies is broken off from a wafer to which the plurality of the vibrating bodies is coupled, and the bonding material has contact with a side surface of the protrusion in the recess.

Abstract: An ultrasound transducer includes: a drive unit including a piezoelectric device; a proximal end block; and a distal end block. The distal end block includes a first portion, a supported portion, a second portion, and a third portion. The distal end block is configured such that a position of a boundary between the second portion and the third portion corresponds to or substantially corresponds to an antinode of the ultrasonic vibration while the piezoelectric device generates the ultrasonic vibration, and the ultrasonic vibration is being propagated to the proximal end block, the first portion, the second portion, and the third portion. A resonance frequency of the ultrasonic vibration differs according to a position of the boundary between the second portion and the third portion under a condition that a distance from the supported portion to a distal end of the third portion along the longitudinal axis is constant.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides an acoustic wave transducer and a driving method thereof. The acoustic wave transducer includes cell groups, at least part of which each include acoustic wave transducer cells configured to perform a same operation, each acoustic wave transducer cell being configured to perform at least one of: converting an acoustic wave signal into an electrical signal and converting an electrical signal into an acoustic wave signal; and array element signal terminals, each of which is coupled to at least two adjacent cell groups, and is coupled to different cell groups through different switch devices, each switch device being configured to control connection and disconnection between the array element signal terminal and the cell group coupled to the switch device, and the cell groups coupled to an array element signal terminal and the cell groups coupled to an adjacent array element signal terminal are partly the same.

Abstract: An energy harvesting apparatus using an electroactive material includes an electricity generator including the electroactive material to generate a voltage due to deformation caused by an external stimulus, and an impact generator including a deformable and restorable material capable of repetitive deformation and restoration and configured to generate a dynamic behavior based on the repetitive deformation and restoration in the electricity generator. A stimulus of the impact generator with respect to the electricity generator enables energy harvest. An electrode unit for deformation includes an electricity generator including an electroactive material to generate a voltage due to deformation caused by an external stimulus, and an electrode part electrically connected to at least one surface of the electricity generator, and including an elastically deformable material to achieve relative deformation while in contact with the electricity generator.