Miniaturized Piezoelectric Devices: Design, Fabrication and Applications

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "E:Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 2796

Special Issue Editors

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale e dell'Informazione, Università degli Studi di Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Interests: MEMS; MOEMS; optical sensors; interferometry; microphotonics; biophotonics; biosensors; lab on a chip
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Information Engineering (DII), University of Brescia, Via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Interests: piezoelectric sensors and transducers; resonant and acoustic-wave sensors; energy harvesting for sensors; sensor interface electronics; MEMS and microsensors for physical quantities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Electromechanical transducers that utilize the piezoelectric effect play an important role in a variety of applications where ultraminiaturized devices are required. Piezoelectric transducers ensure low-power operation, enabling electrical actuation and sensing. This Special Issue aims to collect research papers, communications, and review articles that report the latest results and progress on piezoelectric microdevices (and their applications) with regards to microoptic components (e.g., micromirrors and tunable microlenses), acoustic microdevices (e.g., microphones and micro-loudspeakers), and microsensors in general. We are looking forward to showcasing miniaturized piezoelectric devices for compact, lightweight applications, as well as microstructures incorporating piezo-actuators/sensors fabricated with MEMS technology. Demonstrations of innovative sensing configurations in which miniaturized piezoelectric devices play a key role are also solicited and welcome.

We are looking forward to receiving your submissions.

Prof. Dr. Sabina Merlo
Prof. Dr. Vittorio Ferrari
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • piezoelectric microdevices
  • piezoelectric micromirrors
  • piezo-tunable microlenses
  • piezo-tunable microoptic components
  • piezoelectric microphones
  • piezoelectric micro-loudspeakers
  • piezoelectric microsensors

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 6117 KiB  
Article
Surface Acoustic Wave-Based Microfluidic Device for Microparticles Manipulation: Effects of Microchannel Elasticity on the Device Performance
by Gianluca Mezzanzanica, Olivier Français and Stefano Mariani
Micromachines 2023, 14(9), 1799; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14091799 - 21 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1056
Abstract
Size sorting, line focusing, and isolation of microparticles or cells are fundamental ingredients in the improvement of disease diagnostic tools adopted in biology and biomedicine. Microfluidic devices are exploited as a solution to transport and manipulate (bio)particles via a liquid flow. Use of [...] Read more.
Size sorting, line focusing, and isolation of microparticles or cells are fundamental ingredients in the improvement of disease diagnostic tools adopted in biology and biomedicine. Microfluidic devices are exploited as a solution to transport and manipulate (bio)particles via a liquid flow. Use of acoustic waves traveling through the fluid provides non-contact solutions to the handling goal, by exploiting the acoustophoretic phenomenon. In this paper, a finite element model of a microfluidic surface acoustic wave-based device for the manipulation of microparticles is reported. Counter-propagating waves are designed to interfere inside a PDMS microchannel and generate a standing surface acoustic wave which is transmitted to the fluid as a standing pressure field. A model of the cross-section of the device is considered to perform a sensitivity analysis of such a standing pressure field to uncertainties related to the geometry of the microchannel, especially in terms of thickness and width of the fluid domain. To also assess the effects caused by possible secondary waves traveling in the microchannel, the PDMS is modeled as an elastic solid material. Remarkable effects and possible issues in microparticle actuation, as related to the size of the microchannel, are discussed by way of exemplary results. Full article
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11 pages, 3959 KiB  
Article
A Miniaturized Piezo Stack Impact Actuation Mechanism for Out-of-Plane Freely Moveable Masses
by Matthias C. Wapler, Constantin Peter, Koustav Kanjilal and Ulrike Wallrabe
Micromachines 2023, 14(6), 1192; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14061192 - 03 Jun 2023
Viewed by 1106
Abstract
We present the prototype and analytical model of a miniaturized impact actuation mechanism, providing a fast out-of-plane displacement to accelerate objects against gravity, allowing for freely moving objects and hence for large displacements without the need for cantilevers. To achieve the necessary high [...] Read more.
We present the prototype and analytical model of a miniaturized impact actuation mechanism, providing a fast out-of-plane displacement to accelerate objects against gravity, allowing for freely moving objects and hence for large displacements without the need for cantilevers. To achieve the necessary high speed, we chose a piezoelectric stack actuator driven by a high-current pulse generator, connected to a rigid support and a rigid three-point contact with the object. We describe this mechanism with a spring-mass model and compare various spheres with different masses and diameters and from different materials. As expected, we found that larger flight heights are achieved by harder spheres, achieving, e.g., approx. 3 mm displacement for a 3 mm steel sphere using a 3 × 3 × 2 mm3 piezo stack. Full article
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