Energy harvesting is a promising technology that powers the electronic devices via scavenging the ambient energy. Piezoelectric energy harvesters have attracted considerable interest for their high conversion efficiency and easy fabrication in minimized sensors and transducers. To improve the output capability of energy harvesters, properties of piezoelectric materials is an influential factor,...

Microaccelerometers using piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films have attracted much interest due to their simple structure and potentially high sensitivity. In this paper, we present a theoretical model for a microaccelerometer with four suspended flexural PZT-on-silicon beams and a central proof mass configuration. The model takes into account the effect of device geometry and...

The majority of photonic crystals developed till-date are not dynamically tunable, especially in silicon-based structures. Dynamic tunability is required not only for reconfiguration of the optical characteristics based on user-demand, but also for compensation against external disturbances and relaxation of tight device fabrication tolerances. Recent developments in photonic crystals have sugg...

In this work, the dependence of piezoelectric coefficients (PE) on the size of artificial fabricated ZnO micropillars on Si substrate is investigated. ZnO full film is grown with c-axis orientation and an average grain size of 20 nm at a substrate temperature of 500 °C by pulsed laser ablation. The micropillars with the size range of 1.5 to 7 μm are formed by top-down semiconductor device proce...

In this paper, we study the response of a practical piezoelectric transducer, used to initiate droplet pinch-off in a capillary jet, to different driving waveforms at different frequencies. The study also examines how the piezoelectric’s response affects the jet breakup into droplets. Here we study sine wave and square wave periodic signals. The piezoelectric vibrates when a periodic voltage wi...

An optical correlator based on acoustoelectro-optic interaction is proposed. The device is experimentally demonstrated with a LiNbO(3) crystal in which acoustic waves are launched by a piezoelectric transducer and electric fields are established through the photorefractive effect.

We report the first piezoelectric potential gated hybrid field-effect transistors based on nanotubes and nanowires. The device consists of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on the bottom and crossed ZnO piezoelectric fine wire (PFW) on the top with an insulating layer between. Here, SWNTs serve as a carrier transport channel, and a single-crystal ZnO PFW acts as the power-free, contact-fre...

We demonstrate a water-immersible thin film lead zirconate titanate, Pb(Zr,Ti)O3, [PZT] actuator, without special passivation layer, towards in-vivo or in-vitro scanning probe microscope (SPM) measurements of living cells in water or biological fluids. In order to be water-immersible, the electrodes need to be electrically insulated and the piezoelectric layer needs to be protected against dire...

Future deployment of wireless sensor networks will ultimately require a self-sustainable local power source for each sensor, and vibration energy harvesting is a promising approach for such applications. A requirement for efficient vibration energy harvesting is to match the device and source frequencies. While techniques to tune the resonance frequency of an energy harvesting device have recen...

A thin film lead zirconate titanate Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT), power generating device is developed. It is designed to resonate at specific vibrational frequencies from an ambient, vibrational energy source, thereby creating electrical energy via the piezoelectric effect. The energy harvesting device uses the piezoelectric d33 mode and is fabricated with three mask steps. Our cantilever device was desi...