Transducers based on piezoelectric crystals dominate the biomedical ultrasonic imaging field. However, fabrication difficulties for piezoelectric transducers limit their usage for complex imaging modalities such as 2D imaging, high frequency imaging, and forward looking intravascular imaging. Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) have been proposed to overcome these limitation...

We describe the use of parametric amplification to substantially increase the magnetoelectric (ME) coefficient of multiferroic cantilevers. Parametric amplification has been widely used in sensors and actuators based on optical, electronic, and mechanical resonators to increase transducer gain. In our system, a microfabricated mechanical cantilever with a magnetostrictive layer is driven at its...

The latest wearable technologies demand more intuitive and sophisticated interfaces for communication, sensing, and feedback closer to the body. Evidently, such interfaces require flexibility and conformity without losing their functionality even on rigid surfaces. Although there have been various research efforts in creating tactile feedback to improve various haptic interfaces and master–slav...

Many academic and commercial researchers are exploring the design and deployment of wireless sensors that can be used for structural monitoring. The concept of intelligent wireless sensors can be further extended to include actuation capabilities. In this study, the design of a wireless sensing unit that has the capability to command active sensors and actuators is proposed for structural monit...

A compact two-dimensional micro scanner with small volume, large deflection angles and high frequency is presented and the two-dimensional laser scanning is achieved by specular reflection. To achieve large deflection angles, the micro scanner excited by a piezoelectric actuator operates in the resonance mode. The scanning frequencies and the maximum scanning angles of the two degrees of freedo...

As the largest organ in the human body, the skin provides the important sensory channel for humans to receive external stimulations based on touch. By the information perceived through touch, people can feel and guess the properties of objects, like weight, temperature, textures, and motion, etc. In fact, those properties are nerve stimuli to our brain received by different kinds of receptors i...

Static shape actuation and dynamic control of nozzles can improve their performance, accuracy, reliability, etc. A new curved laminated piezothermoelastic hexahedral finite element is formulated based on the layerwise constant shear angle theory and it is used for modeling and analysis of piezothermoelastic conical shell structures subjected to control voltages for static shape actuation and dy...

We report a significant advance in space robotics design based on innovation of 3D composite structures and piezoelectric actuation. The essence of this work is development of a new all-composite robotic manipulator utilizing rotary ultrasonic motors (USM). “MarsArmII“ is 40% lighter than a prior “MarsArmI” JPL design based in more massive, bulky hybrid metal-composite, joint-link system archit...

Integrated chemical and biological sensors give advantages in cost, size and weight reduction and open new prospects for parallel monitoring and analysis. Biosensors based on nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) are the most attractive candidates for the integrated platform. However, actuation and transduction techniques (e.g. electrostatic, magnetomotive, thermal or piezoelectric) limit their ...

A high-performance flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator (PNG) is fabricated by a direct writing method, which acquires both patterned piezoelectric structure and aligned piezoelectric nanowires simultaneously. The voltage output of the as-prepared PNG is nearly 400% compared with that of the traditional spin-coated device due to the effective utilization of stress. This facile printing approach...