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Nonlinear multi-stable piezoelectric energy harvesters show broadband frequency spectra and excellent energy harvesting performance, owing to their high output power related to inter-well transitions. However, existing quad-stable piezoelectric energy harvesters contain too many structural parameters, which makes the systems clumsy, and increases the difficulties of dynamic analysis and structural optimization. Herein, a nonlinear quad-stable piezoelectric energy harvester, with only one external magnet, is proposed based on the magnetic force characteristics between a ring magnet and a rectangular magnet. Under selected structural parameters, as the magnet spacing increases, the stability characteristic of the harvester changes from quad-stability to bi-stability, and then to mono-stability. The transformation of the stability characteristic results from the changes in the variation rate of the vertical magnetic force. Subsequently, under the filtered Gaussian white noise within the frequency range of 0–120 Hz, the energy harvesting performance of the harvester is simulated by the classic fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. Simulation results show that the performance of the harvester under the quad-stable structural parameters is better than that under the bi-stable structural parameters, independent of whether the excitation acceleration is small or large. This result is related to the potential well characteristics under the quad-stable and bi-stable structural parameters. More specifically, the potential well depths under the quad-stable and bi-stable structural parameters are almost the same, but the distance between the two outer potential wells under the quad-stable structural parameters is larger than that under the bi-stable structural parameters. Finally, a fabricated prototype is used to measure the experimental performance of the harvester. The experimental data and the estimated data share the same trend. This study provides a new conception and technical method for the design, optimization, and application of quad-stable piezoelectric energy harvesters.

Controlling the structure of a material over a wide range of scales has been extensively pursued because the structure dictates its function. Here, we explore the formation of 3D structures at almost a millimetre scale using single-crystal complex oxides, which has been challenging because of the brittle nature of oxides. Our scheme is to release epitaxial oxide thin film heterostructures from the rigid substrate in order to utilise the elastic epitaxial strain as a driving force for self-shaping the flexible free-standing membrane in a controlled manner. Using an epitaxial free-standing LaAlO3/SrTiO3 membrane as a model system, we were able to create various 3D forms, such as cylindrically-rolled, spherically-bent, and helically-twisted structures, where the inversion-symmetry is broken by the strain gradient via flexoelectric effects. Our results will provide opportunities not only to broaden the application of functional oxides toward flexible electronics, but also to discover new functionalities driven by 3D architectures at various scales.

Nonlinear mono-stable and multi-stable piezoelectric energy harvesters have attracted a lot of attention owing to their broadband frequency spectra and excellent energy harvesting performance. Herein, two types of nonlinear mono-stable, bi-stable, tri-stable, and quad-stable piezoelectric energy harvesters using cantilever structure and magnetic interaction are compared and analyzed. Based on the magnetizing current method, the magnetic force equations are obtained. Calculation results demonstrate that the stability of these harvesters is dependent on the equivalent linear elastic force and the vertical magnetic force. The equilibrium point occurs when the equivalent linear elastic force equals to the vertical magnetic force. The relationship between the number of stable equilibrium points E S and the number of the intersections of the two force curves N I is that E S= (N I + 1)/2. Experiments are carried out to verify the equivalent linear elastic force, vertical magnetic force, and the number of stable equilibrium points of the fabricated prototypes. The experimental results are consistent with the calculated results, which verifies the correctness of the stability mechanism. Moreover, it is found that the stability mechanism is also applicable to the harvesters with more stable equilibrium points, such as penta-stable and hexa-stable harvesters. This work reveals the stability mechanism of nonlinear mono-stable and multi-stable energy harvesters using cantilever structure and magnetic interaction, and provides technical methods for the design of multi-stable energy harvesters.

Triboelectric generators (TEG), based on contact electrification and electro-static induction, has received a significant attention because of their numerous applications. To improve the electrified surface charge density in TEG, increasing the surface area of dielectric materials or forming internal hollow structures are typically employed to increase capacitance. However, the fabrication processes of such structures are complex and time-consuming. Here, we provide a facile and cost-effective synthesis method for the porous PDMS based TEG via a novel vapor encapsulation casting (VEC). The double dielectric layer composed of the porous and dense PDMS layers are formed in-site through VEC. The thickness and the thickness ratio of the double dielectric layer can be precisely controlled by adjusting the uncured PDMS thickness and vapor penetration depth. The double dielectric layer TEG (DTEG) exhibits the improved harvesting performance because the porous dielectric layer increases the capacitance and compressibility, while the dense layer passivates the fully open pores which reduce the charging surface area as completely opening through the dielectric layer without contacting the bottom electrode. We obtain the maximum output voltage of 345 V and short circuit current of 3 μA/cm2 from DTEG having 0.95 porous thickness ratio, resulting 330% enhancement in the power output as compared to the dense PDMS based TEG. We further investigate the performance of DTEG under various operating conditions. We also demonstrate the operation of Bluetooth distance/temperature sensors using capacitors charged by DTEG.

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) derivatives are synthesized by oxidative polymerization using sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as an anionic surfactant dopant. The resulting polymeric materials featuring nanofiber-type one-dimensional (1D) structures are identified as poly(2‐butyl‐2,3‐dihydrothieno[3,4‐b][1,4]dioxine:dodecyl sulfate (PEDOT-C4:DS) and poly(2‐hexyl‐2,3‐dihydrothieno[3,4‐b][1,4]dioxine:dodecyl sulfate (PEDOT-C6:DS). The ratio of the DS anion doped into PEDOT-C4:DS and PEDOT-C6:DS is 0.16 and 0.23, respectively. The contact angle of water on the PEDOT-C4:DS and PEDOT-C6:DS films is 76.6° and 87.7°, respectively, showing hydrophobic properties similar to that with water on PVDF. It facilitated the fully uniform film formation due to excellent surface matching. Peeling force of PEDOT-C4:DS and PEDOT-C6:DS is stronger than the one of PEDOT:PSS‐CNT composite. GIWAX analysis showed that PEDOT-C4:DS formed the highly ordered edge-on structure and PEDOT-C6:DS formed the bimodal orientation consisting of edge-on structure mainly and face-on structure slightly. The electrical conductivity (σPEDOT‐C4:DS=50.0 S cm−1) of PEDOT-C4:DS is 41.7 times higher than that of PEDOT:PSS (σPEDOT:PSS=1.2 S cm−1). The output signals (maximum voltages/currents) of piezoelectric nanogenerators (PNGs, electrode/PVDF/electrode) using these materials as electrodes are PNG-1 (PEDOT:PSS‐CNT composite) 1.25 V/128.5 nA, PNG-2 (PEDOT-C4:DS) 1.54 V/166.0 nA, and PNG-3 (PEDOT-C6:DS) 1.49 V/159.0 nA. Of these, PNG-2 & PNG-3 show maximum piezoelectric output power of 63.0 nW and 59.9 nW at 9 MΩ compared to PNG-1 (41.0 nW at 10 MΩ). They are enhanced up to 53.7%. The excellent surface matching between a piezoelectric active material and an electrode material leads to high output power.

Conventional artificial muscles induce bending by aligning large-sized ions within the electrolyte upon bias application. Such design, alike many other actuator types, suffer from volatile actuation where the actuated position gets lost upon switch-off. Here, we develop a non-volatile artificial muscle with ion insertion electrode materials. Upon bias application, the inserted ions pose stress on the electrodes that sustain even after power shut-off. The demonstrated actuator consists of lithium germanide (LixGe) thin films deposited on both sides of a flexible polyimide (PI) substrate. The device exhibits 35.2 mm displacement when operated at 2 V and generates the blocking force of 0.67 mN. The observed stress and volume expansion reach 248 MPa and 8.2% for the 284 nm Li3Ge thin films, respectively. The actuated position is maintained against gravity with 12.1% decay in the actuated distance after 10 min. The novel actuator type proves the potential use of lithium insertion materials as actuation materials and shows that non-volatile actuation can be realized with ion-insertion electrodes.

For a type-1 piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH), in which stress develops in the supporting system of the piezoelectric materials, the electromechanical coupling factor (kij) of the piezoelectric materials is important for the output power at the resonance frequency. Therefore, soft-piezoelectric materials are good candidates for these PEHs. For type-2 PEHs, in which stress develops in the piezoelectric material and supporting system, the figure of merit (FOM) of the output power at the resonance frequency is (kij2 × Qm)/s11E, where Qm and s11E are the mechanical quality factor and the elastic compliance of piezoelectric materials, respectively. In particular, the effect of Qm is very large for these PEHs, indicating that hard-piezoelectric materials are good candidates for type-2 PEHs operating at the resonance frequency. For both type-1 and type-2 PEHs operating at off-resonance frequency, the kij2 × dij × gij is the FOM of the output power of the PEHs, where gij is a piezoelectric voltage constant. Therefore, soft-piezoelectric materials are also good candidates for both type-1 and type-2 PEHs operating at the off-resonance frequency.

Sound energy harvesting is one of the promising technologies due to the abundant and clean sound sources. It can be the semi-permanent alternative power supplies for wireless sensor networks (WSNs), which is significant in the Internet of Things (IoT). However, sound waves have the low energy density, so there are many kinds of research in recent years to overcome this problem. This paper provides a comprehensive review of sound energy harvesting, focusing on presenting principles, examples and enhancement methods of sound energy harvesters. In this paper, various approaches are introduced which are classified as sound pressure amplification and transduction mechanism. For sound pressure amplification, two typical types of energy harvesters are presented that one is using a resonator, another one is using an acoustic metamaterial, and these are based on piezoelectric, electromagnetic, and triboelectric mechanisms to convert sound energy to electrical energy.

The breath gas analysis through gas phase chemical analysis draws attention in terms of non-invasive and real time monitoring. The array-type sensors are one of the diagnostic methods with high sensitivity and selectivity towards the target gases. Herein, we presented a 2 × 4 sensor array with a micro-heater and ceramic chip. The device is designed in a small size for portability, including the internal eight-channel sensor array. In2O3 NRs and WO3 NRs manufactured through the E-beam evaporator’s glancing angle method were used as sensing materials. Pt, Pd, and Au metal catalysts were decorated for each channel to enhance functionality. The sensor array was measured for the exhaled gas biomarkers CH3COCH3, NO2, and H2S to confirm the respiratory diagnostic performance. Through this operation, the theoretical detection limit was calculated as 1.48 ppb for CH3COCH3, 1.9 ppt for NO2, and 2.47 ppb for H2S. This excellent detection performance indicates that our sensor array detected the CH3COCH3, NO2, and H2S as biomarkers, applying to the breath gas analysis. Our results showed the high potential of the gas sensor array as a non-invasive diagnostic tool that enables real-time monitoring.

Recent advances in lithography technology and the spread of 3D printers allow us a facile fabrication of special materials with complicated microstructures. The materials are called “designed materials” or “architectured materials” and provide new opportunities for material development. These materials, which owing to their rationally designed architectures exhibit unusual properties at the micro- and nano-scales, are being widely exploited in the development of modern materials with customized and improved performance. Meta-materials are found to possess superior and unusual properties as regards static modulus (axial stress divided by axial strain), density, energy absorption, smart functionality, and negative Poisson’s ratio (NPR). However, in spite of recent developments, it has only been feasible to fabricate a few such meta-materials and to implement them in practical applications. Against such a backdrop, a broad review of the wide range of cellular auxetic structures for mechanical metamaterials available at our disposal and their potential application areas is important. Classified according to their geometrical configuration, this paper provides a review of cellular auxetic structures. The structures are presented with a view to tap into their potential abilities and leverage multidimensional fabrication advances to facilitate their application in industry. In this review, there is a special emphasis on state-of-the-art applications of these structures in important domains such as sensors and actuators, the medical industry, and defense while touching upon ways to accelerate the material development process.

Vertically aligned and dense InGaAs nanowires were grown on Si (111) substrates by Au-assisted molecular beam epitaxy, and their antireflection characteristics were studied. The bandgap of InGaAs nanowires was tuned to be about 1.0 eV by adjusting the In to Ga ratio. The grown nanowires were vertically aligned with a diameter of ~ 20 nm near the top and ~ 44 nm at the bottom, with a slightly tapered structure. This tapered nanostructure was formed due to the different surface diffusivities and affinities of In and Ga to the Au catalyst. The grown InGaAs nanowires have no significant stacking, kinking, and bending defects. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy study showed that the grown InGaAs nanowires have a pure wurtzite single crystalline structure with the maximum length of ~ 18 µm. Photo-reflectometry measurement showed a significant reduction in the reflectance less than ~ 5% at normal incidence in the wavelength range of 200–1700 nm. In addition, spectroscopic ellipsometry study showed a reduced reflectance at various incident angles of 30–70° in the wavelength range of 200–1100 nm. These optical investigations demonstrate the antireflection characteristics of the InGaAs nanowires. Furthermore, piezoelectric responses were collected from the top of the vertically standing InGaAs nanowires at five different points using piezoelectric force microscopy. The measured area for one point was about 50 nm × 50 nm, and the piezoelectric responses of one or two InGaAs nanowires per point were expected to be measured, as the growth direction was along with the polar c -axis [0001] direction.

A K2-mNb2O6-m/2 single crystal with a pyrochlore phase formed when the Nb2O5 + x mol% KOH specimens with 0.6 ≤ x ≤ 1.2 were solvothermally heated at 230 °C for 24 h. They have an octahedral shape with a size of 100 μm, and the composition of this single crystal is close to K1.3Nb2O5.65. The single-crystal KNbO3 formed when the single-crystal K2-mNb2O6-m/2 was annealed at a temperature between 600 °C and 800 °C with K2CO3 powders. When annealing was conducted at 600 °C (or with a small amount of K2CO3), the KNbO3 single crystal has a rhombohedral structure that is stable at low temperatures (< − 10 °C). The formation of the rhombohedral KNbO3 structure can be explained by the presence of the K+ vacancies in the specimen. The KNbO3 single crystal with an orthorhombic structure formed when the K2-mNb2O6-m/2 single crystal was annealed at 800 °C with 20 wt% of K2CO3.

Chemiresistive electronic nose (CEN) composed of villi-like nanostructures (VLNs) of SnO2 and WO3, and Au-functionalized VLNs was fabricated by applying electron-beam evaporation in a glancing angle deposition mode. The VLNs-based CEN with a back-heater (212 °C) shows high responses with low detection limits of parts per billion (ppb)-levels for NO and NH3 vapors at 80% relative humidity atmosphere. The enhanced sensitivities in a high humidity condition turn out to be attributed to the spillover effect by the Au nanoparticles and a large surface-to-volume ratio in porous VLNs. Employing Au NPs on VLNs leads to the increase of O− ions via the spillover effect which impedes the adsorption of water molecules, maintaining the enhanced responses against environmental humidity. Consequently, high responses for NO and NH3 vapors maintain even in the high humidity condition. Herein, with the principal component analysis (PCA), we demonstrate highly selective detection of NO and NH3 vapors against C2H5OH, CO, C7H8, C6H6, and CH3COCH3 vapors. These results open up wide applications of the VLNs-based CEN as an inexpensive and non-invasive diagnostic tool for asthma and kidney disorder.

We present a simple and facile method for producing high-performance hydrogen (H 2 ) sensors based on vertically ordered metal-oxide nanorods with a Pd films on a 4-inch SiO 2 /Si substrate by a glancing-angle deposition. Firstly, optimal density of nanorods was formed by changing an incident angle of vapor flux. Secondly, nanogaps between each nanorod were precisely controlled by manipulating thickness of Pd films. At room temperature in ambient air, 15-nm-thick Pd-coated SiO 2 nanorods showed the rapid on-off switches. The average response time was approximately 2.8 s (the longest response time: 5 s), and the recovery time was less than 1 s for 2%–0.8% H 2 . For 20-nm-thick Pd-coated SiO 2 nanorods, detection of limit was reduced to 10 ppm due to semi-on-off operation. The reproducibility of our approaches was investigated by fabricating the Pd-coated SnO 2 nanorods. They also exhibited the high H 2 sensing performance as Pd-coated SiO 2 nanorods. We strongly believe that high H 2 sensing performance of Pd nanogap controlled metal oxide nanorods provides a new perspective for room-temperature H 2 switches and sensors based on H 2 -induced lattice expansion.

We report on InGaZnO (IGZO) thin film transistors (TFTs)-based bio-chemical sensors which can detect the chemical/biological species. As novel sensing platform, the IGZO TFT with Ag nanowire (NW) mesh showed pronounced output voltage changes responding to all analytes of H 2 O 2 , b- d -glucose, d -glucono-1,5-Lactione, and lactic acid, which are reproducible and reversible. Herein, porous Ag NW-functionalized top gate electrode plays a major role in sensing platform for enhanced sensing capability in aqueous medium. Moreover, these top gate geometry serve as a stable backplane for electrical modulation. As a result, analytes solutions become acidic or basic and such pH alterations induce significant turn-on voltage shifts on our devices. For implementation of a resistive load inverter, the output sensing voltage signals can be directly extracted, and such signals are reproducible and reversible. The proposed IGZO TFTs with Ag NW mesh top gate electrode based sensing platform pave the way for development of portable and reusable real-time non-destructive label-free chemical/biological sensors.

We demonstrate a microscale vibration energy harvester exhibiting an ultra-low resonance frequency and high power density. A spiral shaped microelectromechanical system (MEMS) energy harvester was designed to harvest ambient vibrations at a low frequency ( $\mu \text{m}$ -thickness exhibiting remanent polarization of 36.2 $\mu \text{C}$ /cm2 and longitudinal piezoelectric constant of 155 pm/V was synthesized to achieve high efficiency mechanical to electrical conversion. The experimental results demonstrate an ultra-low natural frequency of 48 Hz for MEMS harvester. This is one of the lowest resonance frequency reported for the piezoelectric MEMS energy harvester. Further, the position of the natural frequency was controlled by modulating the number of spiral turns and weight of the proof mass. The vibration mode shape and stress distribution were validated through a finite element analysis. The maximum output power of 23.3 nW was obtained from the five turns spiral MEMS energy harvester excited at 0.25 g acceleration and 68Hz. The normalized area and the volumetric energy density were measured to be $5.04\times 10^{-4}~ \mu \text{W}$ /mm $^{2}~\cdot ~\text{g}^{2}~\cdot$ Hz and $4.92\times 10^{-2} ~ \mu \text{W}$ /mm $^{3}~\cdot ~\text{g}^{2}~\cdot$ Hz, respectively. [2017-0018]

We report the highly sensitive and selective downsized gas sensors for the IoT application. Sensing areas of Pt-interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) were varied to investigate the relation between sensing materials and electrodes. In2O3 nanocolumns were deposited on the pre-patterned Pt IDEs using glancing angle deposition (GLAD). The effect of the interface resistance between electrodes and sensing materials, and the intergrain resistance between nanocolumns is analyzed by linear regression at different sensing area and incident angle of GLAD. In2O3 (angle: 85°, sensing area: 0.3 mm × 0.3 mm) nanocolumns with double Schottky barriers show the highest response and selectivity with fast response time of 10 s to VOCs among the samples fabricated in this study. The analysis reveals that the intrinsic response of In2O3 (angle: 85°, sensing area: 0.3 mm × 0.3 mm) nanocolumns are dominantly affected by intergrain resistance, resulting in a high response. Our demonstration for the fundamental aspect of downsizing gas sensor makes an important contribution to the chemical sensor field with broad interest.

Touch screens have become an inherent part of the user interface in many electronics applications such as smartphones. The two types of developed touch sensors, the resistive and capacitive sensing devices, may face several difficulties when applied to flexible device applications such as touch signals arising from bending motions. In this study, we assess the feasibility of flexible touch sensors based on piezoelectric PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) thin films. Piezoelectric ceramic based flexible touch sensors possess unique advantages including scalable fabrication, fast response time, durability, and being self-powered. A demonstration device has been fabricated with a sandwich structure consisting of Pt electrode/functional PZT/Pt electrode/flexible substrate structure using laser lift-off (LLO) method. In order to anneal the functional PZT layer at high temperature (600 °C), the device was first fabricated on the sapphire substrate and transferred via melting sacrificial PZT layer with an excimer laser. We demonstrate the detection of x- and y-axis touch location via piezoelectric materials and confirm that the flexible piezoelectric touch sensors can distinguish between touch-induced and bending-induced signals via signal location, signal shape, and duration time. A notable feature of this fabrication technique involves its possibility to be fabricated in high resolution. This device may potentially achieve high resolution with suitable fabrication techniques, thus, providing the possibility for the next generation touch sensors.

Vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) as strong correlated oxide has been intensively studied due to the unique properties accompanied by metal-insulator transition (MIT) near room temperature. Their extrinsic electrical and optical transformations on MIT have been greatly attracted in many potential applications. In this study, we propose to apply an intrinsic electrical property of VO 2 in metallic phase as doping agent of chemiresistive sensor. Self-doped nanocoulmnar vanadium oxides (SNVO) thin films are simply fabricated by glancing angle deposition without any template and chemical additives. The nanocolumnar VO 2 thin films were deposited by e-beam evaporator, and then the SNVO with residual VO 2 in V 2 O 5 nanocolums were synthesized by an air atmosphere annealing, which are composed of dominant oxidized V 2 O 5 which plays a sensing role on the surface and the residual VO 2 with self-doping effect inside nanocolumns. Especially at low temperature (150 °C), SNVO sensor shows an ultra-high performance (R gas /R air > 100) to NO 2 (5 ppm) gas. It is supposed that the residual VO 2 which shows metallic properties above Mott transition temperature (∼67 °C) acts as an intrinsic electron donor by pseudo-free electron, which helps adsorption of oxygen ions on the surface and extends the depletion region of few nanometers of narrow necks between nanocolumns.

Semiconducting gas sensors that operated at room-temperature (around 25 °C) have been studied to monitor target gases. Furthermore, a self-powered gas sensor with no reliance on a battery or external power source was highly demanded to effectively reduce the power consumption and apply for practical environments. In this study, we designed the self-powered gas sensors by connecting ionic-activated semiconducting sensors, a promising candidate for room-temperature operation, with an oval-shaped piezoelectric generator, and light-emitting diode alarm. The effect of the divided voltage from the energy generator to the sensor on the sensing performance was analyzed. The self-powered sensor has an extremely low detection limit (4.32 ppb NO2) with rapid and constant recovery (6 s) regardless of the NO2 concentration. Additionally, the practical applicability was confirmed by the light-emitting diode alarms according to the NO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

One of the well-known pathways toward low power consuming chemoresistive gas sensors is the utilization of 2-dimensional materials. Especially, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), which are usually atomically thin semiconductors, have a notable characteristic of their highly reactive edge sites. The edge sites of TMDs having high d-orbital electron density can serve as highly favorable chemically active sites for direct interaction with target gas molecules. In this study, WS2 was synthesized on highly porous SiO2 nanorods template to have numerous edge-exposed WS2 flakes in a limited active area taking advantage of 1-dimensional nanostructures with extremely high surface-to-volume ratio. The fabricated WS2 on 1D nanostructures exhibited a gas response of 151.2 % toward 5 ppm NO2, which has not been reported in performance-wise at room temperature to the best of the author’s knowledge. Density functional theory calculations theoretically supported the highly sensitive and selective NO2 detection with a theoretical detection limit of 13.726 ppb.

We report the facile synthesis and the chemoresistive performances of villi-like WO 3 nanostructures (VLWNs) which were fabricated by RF sputter with glancing angle deposition (GAD) mode. A fast deposition of GAD effectively forms self-assembled anisotropic nanostructures with high porosity and surface-to-volume ratio. The sensing tests were examined for NO 2 detection in dry air and a mixture of reducing gases. As a result, these sensors at 200 °C exhibit an highly selective and sensitive NO 2 detection down to 800 parts per trillion (ppt) level, and could also respond well to NO 2 in the concentration range of 0.2–1 parts per million (ppm) without the interference of gas mixture. These results show that the enhanced sensing properties to NO 2 are attributed to the highly efficient surface modulation by double potential barriers at nano-necks of WO 3 nanostructures.

Flexible piezoelectric generators have attracted considerable attention in recent years on account of their potential applications in mechanical energy scavenging devices using portable, wearable, and implantable electronics. Key issues for realizing a flexible piezoelectric generator include insufficient output power generation and poor efficiency at low frequency. We therefore propose structural approaches to enhancing the output power of the flexible piezoelectric generator using polyvinylidene fluoride. Specifically, we propose the use of a substrate and curved structure, and optimization of the aspect ratio of the generator for maximizing output power density. Through these approaches, induced stress and output voltage of the generator are analyzed by finite element modeling and validated through experiments. Considering these results for generator optimization, we fabricate a multilayered flexible curved generator, which produces ~200 V of the peak output voltage and ~2.7 mA of the peak output current. The output power density of the generator reaches ~17 mW/cm 2 , which is sufficient to drive various commercial electronics as a power source. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that this power source can illuminate 952 LED bulbs. This conceptual technology can provide the groundwork to enhancing the output power of conventional piezoelectric generators, thereby enabling novel approaches to realizing self-powered systems.

Piezoelectric energy harvesters typically exhibit sharp peak in output power around resonance frequency (small bandwidth), which presents complexity in harvesting ambient vibrations that normally comprise of multiple frequencies. Prior attempts in designing energy harvesters with broadband response have met with practical challenges in terms of low output power, large mass and weight, and small improvements in bandwidth. Here, we report a breakthrough in demonstrating ultra-wide bandwidth piezoelectric energy harvesters through the automatic resonance tuning (ART) phenomenon. ART provides energy harvester ability to adjust its natural frequency in conjunction with ambient vibration without human intervention or additional tuning energy. The ART energy harvester utilizes the motion of the mobile proof mass in a doubly clamped oscillating beam structure to modulate the natural frequency of the beam. Detailed investigations are conducted in providing a fundamental understanding of the operation mechanism of the ART harvester by invoking beam dynamics over a wide range of vibration conditions. It is shown that bandwidth of the ART harvester (36 Hz) is 1400% larger compared to the fixed resonance energy harvester. The practical feasibility of the ART mechanism is demonstrated by evaluating the performance of the harvester mounted on a rotary pump. The results demonstrate that ART mechanism can provide the much-needed breakthrough in the deployment of mechanical energy harvesters for naturally occurring vibrations.

Microbial forensics, exploiting bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, has been considered as one of the primary fields to trace the postmortem interval from the decaying cadavers. On the other hand, there remain several challenges of laboratory-based analysis for prediction of postmortem interval, including long-time measurement, complicated measuring procedure, and bacterial growth while carrying samples from the scene. Herein, we introduce the Smart Forensic Kit, which consists of a highly sensitive colorimetric gas sensor, a quality control algorithm, and a smartphone-based analysis method, to quantify the bacterial-derived ammonia gas in real-time. As a result, the estimation system of the postmortem interval has a superior selectivity to the ammonia gas with a detection limit of 38.7 ppb, response linearity to the target bacteria (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Pseudomonas putida), and short measuring time (10 min) with the maximum predicted postmortem interval from the mouse carcass (168 h). Furthermore, thanks to measuring the postmortem interval within 10 min, the negligible increase rate of bacterial concentration was observed. Consequently, the results reflected a high correlation between the ammonia gas emitted from bacteria and the postmortem interval so that we believe the Smart Forensic Kit will be applied for tracing down the decomposition of the cadavers in the near future.

Despite the many studies reporting mW-level power output from various hybridized energy harvesters, few succeeded in demonstrating real-life applications such as the commercial Internet of Things (IoT) sensor modules. This owes in large part to the limited time-averaged power output, especially under the requirement for the power-consuming circuitry such as rectifiers and AC to DC converters. At the heart of the limited power lies the lack of detailed analyses and optimization strategies to hybridizing two or more distinct energy harvesters. Here, we first develop design guidelines and optimization strategies based on a parametric model for hybridized energy harvesters coupling two or more distinct mechanisms. The model treats electric current-generating energy harvesters as electric dampers in the spring-mass-damper system and seeks to minimize the total damping consisting of electrical and mechanical damping. We then demonstrate the design guidelines to an oval-shaped hybrid energy harvester consisting of piezoelectric and electromagnetic generators, achieving the time-averaged power output of 25.45 mW at 60 Hz and 0.5 G input vibration. Also, the detailed analyses reveal that the two coupled generators operate in a complementary manner, maintaining a reasonable power output even when one generator suddenly degrades or fails. We finally demonstrate powering a commercial IoT sensor module with the hybrid energy harvester, receiving the sensed information to a smartphone via Bluetooth connectivity.

We report on the sensitive and selective sensing properties of SnO2 nanorods (NRs) based gas sensors coupled with a miniature gas chromatography (mini-GC) system for the detection of acetylene. The SnO2 NRs were fabricated by a glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method and their average height and diameter were ∼200 nm and ∼30 nm, respectively. In order to overcome a selectivity issue of metal oxide semiconductor gas sensors, we integrated our SnO2 NRs based sensors with a packed column. The device accurately and selectively detected acetylene within 2 min (∼120 s). We found that loading a thin layer (5 nm) of metal catalysts such as Au, Pt or Pd increases the sensing abilities of the SnO2 NRs sensors. Among the tested sensors, the Pd-coated SnO2 NRs sensor (Pd-SnO2 NRs) exhibited the best sensing performance for the detection of 10 ppm of acetylene and the lower detection limit of 0.01 ppm. The superior sensing properties of Pd-SnO2 NRs are due to the large amount of oxygen deficiencies on the surface of Pd-SnO2 NRs, which acts as reactive sites. More importantly, the mini-GC device can be used to selectively detect 10 ppm of acetylene from other gases such as H2. Our findings demonstrate that Pd-SnO2 NRs integrated with a mini-GC device can be utilized to monitor the dissolved acetylene gas in transformer oil in real time.

Unlike bulk materials, many physical properties of thin-film materials depend on film thickness due to extrinsic effects such as residual stress and the dead layer. In this work, the effect of thickness on the electrocaloric properties of Pb0.9La0.1(Zr0.65Ti0.35)O3(10/65/35) (PLZT) films grown by the sol–gel method was studied experimentally. In the sol–gel synthesis, the annealing process results in residual stress and the metal–dielectric contact generates a dead layer. These extrinsic effects influence the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of the thin films, and their roles are film thickness dependent. For PLZT of nanometer thickness (from 420 nm to 1080 nm), the permittivity and polarization, and their temperature dependences, showed strong dependence on film thickness. In particular, in the temperature range from 70°C to 350°C, the electrocaloric temperature change showed threefold improvement (from 0.2°C to 0.6°C) as the thickness was increased from 420 nm to 840 nm. This work will aid development of polycrystalline thin films including PLZT for electrocaloric applications.

As highly sensitive H2S gas sensors, Au- and Ag-catalyzed SnO2 thin films with morphology-controlled nanostructures were fabricated by using e-beam evaporation in combination with the glancing angle deposition (GAD) technique. After annealing at 500 °C for 40 h, the sensors showed a polycrystalline phase with a porous, tilted columnar nanostructure. The gas sensitivities (S = Rgas/Rair) of Au and Ag-catalyzed SnO2 sensors fabricated by the GAD process were 0.009 and 0.015, respectively, under 5 ppm H2S at 300 °C, and the 90% response time was approximately 5 s. These sensors showed excellent sensitivities compared with the SnO2 thin film sensors that were deposited normally (glancing angle = 0°, S = 0.48).

With the widespread use of wearable electronics, the flexible piezoelectric energy harvesting devices have been extensively studied to efficiently convert the physical motion of the human body into electrical energy. The major obstacles for realizing a flexible piezoelectric generator include the insufficient output power generation and the poor efficiency at the low-frequency regime. Here, we demonstrate a curved piezoelectric generator favorable for wearable applications, generating a high output power. The curved structure plays a key role to improve the power generation, by effectively distributing the applied force across the piezoelectric layer, as well as to allow operation at the low frequency vibration range. Accordingly, this generator produces � 120 V of peak output voltage and � 700 mA of peak output current during a cycle. Furthermore, our generator can operate at low frequencies below 50 Hz, generating � 55 V of output voltage and 250 mA of output current at 35 Hz, and it even works at frequencies as low as 1 Hz. With this generator, we successfully lit up 476 commercial LED bulbs. In addition, we experimentally demonstrate the possibility that the generator can be used in shoes, watches, and clothes as a power source. Our results will provide a framework to enhance the output power of conventional piezoelectric generators, and open a new avenue for realization of self-powered systems, such as wearable electronic devices.

Highly-stretchable piezoelectric hemispheres composed composite thin film nanogenerators are fabricated as a self-powered, exceptionally sensitive sensor for providing sensitive motion information from a human body. The composite films are based on the highly-ordered piezoelectric hemispheres embedded in a soft matrix, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and generate large power output up to 6 V and 0.2 μA/cm2 under normal bending force. The electrical outputs increase by stacking such hemispheres layer-by-layer. The strain sensitivity of the films differs according to the bending direction, and the high sensitivity is achieved by convex bending for hemisphere composite due to the strong electric dipole alignment. The films are attached on the surface of a wrist and its output voltage/current density provides the information on the wrist motion.

WO3 nanoigloos decorated with Ag-, Pd-, and Au nanoparticles are fabricated by soft-template method and self-agglomeration of metal films. The responses of WO3 nanoigloos decorated with metal nanoparticles to various gases such as NO2, CH3COCH3, C2H5OH, and H2 are much higher than those of bare WO3 nanoigloos. According to the surface decoration, WO3 nanoigloos show significantly different behaviors in the response enhancement, revealing that Pd-decorated WO3 nanoigloos exhibit the highest response to H2 together with fast response time to H2, C2H5OH, and CH3COCH3 (below 10 s), Au-decorated WO3 nanoigloos exhibit the highest response to NO2. The catalytic effect of Ag is relatively weaker than Pd and Au nanoparticles, however, it exhibit the fastest response time to NO2. These are attributed to not only the varied catalytic activities of the metal nanoparticles, but also the different work function energies of them. Our results show that highly sensitive and selective WO3 nanoigloos decorated with metal nanoparticles can be an effective platform to fabricate an electronic nose for the further application of semiconducting metal oxide gas sensors.

The piezoelectric energy generation properties of transparent flexible devices (TFD) based on PbZr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 (PZT) films, which were fabricated by laser lift-off (LLO) process, were studied for a piezoelectric energy harvester. Through the introduction of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates, TFDs were implemented, respectively. The TFDs based on PZT films generated an AC-type output signal and output power of 8.4 nW/cm 2 , at periodically bending and releasing motion. In addition, inverted output signals were observed when the manufactured TFDs were connected to the measuring equipment in reverse and were bended to the reverse direction, demonstrating that the generating signals originated from the piezoelectric effect of TFDs. The experimental results clearly showed that the TFDs based PZT film have potential for use in next generation of electronic devices applications such as flexible devices, transparent electronics, and energy harvester.

Binary system of 0.05Pb(Al 0.5 Nb 0.5 )O 3 −0.95Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 (PAN–PZT) thin films were deposited on alumina substrates by a pulsed laser deposition method and we investigated effects of oxygen pressure on ferroelectric domain structure and the piezoelectric characteristics of the films by piezoelectric force microscope (PFM). The films in optimum oxygen pressure exhibited the remnant polarization of 58.4 and 24.4 μC/cm 2 , and 180° and 90° domain switching behavior were observed from PFM analysis. We obtained a large effective piezoelectric constant ( d 33 ) value (∼110 pm/V) in the films. As a result, we can determine the ferroelectric domain structure and improve the piezoelectric properties of the PAN–PZT films using an oxygen pressure control during the process and it helps to obtain suitable piezoelectric thin films for sensors and actuators applications.

The ferroelectric properties of flexible devices based on 0.05Pb(Al 0.5 Nb 0.5 )O 3 –0.95Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 + 0.7 wt.%Nb 2 O 5 + 0.5 wt.%MnO 2 (PAN-PZT) thin films, which were fabricated using a laser lift-off (LLO) process, were investigated. The flexible devices based on PAN-PZT thin films were coated with a sacrificial layer, which prevented or minimized damage during LLO process. The structural and electrical properties of the PAN-PZT thin films before and after LLO process demonstrated that the crystallographic and ferroelectric properties of the device were retained after LLO process. Flexible devices based on PAN-PZT thin films coated with a sacrificial layer may be fabricated using the LLO process for the production of flexible electronic devices.

We report fabrication and gas sensing properties of semiconducting metal oxide gas sensors using conducting oxide electrodes. Indium–tin oxide (ITO) and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films are used to replace Pt electrodes in WO 3 or SnO 2 thin-film gas sensors. Before and after thermal annealing at 300 °C for 3200 min, the resistivity of the ITO film increases from 1.3 × 10 −4 to 7.0 × 10 −4 Ω cm, whereas the AZO film shows a significant increase in resistivity from 2.0 × 10 −3 to 5.1 × 10 1 Ω cm due to the annihilation of oxygen vacancies in the film. Upon exposure to 50 ppm CO at 300 °C, WO 3 or SnO 2 thin-film sensors with ITO interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) on glass substrates display higher responses than sensors with Pt IDEs, attributed to the low-resistance ohmic contacts between the electrode (ITO) and the sensing material (WO 3 or SnO 2 ). The reproducible response, the concentration-dependent modulation in sensitivity, and a sub-ppm detection limit indicates the reliable operation of sensors made with ITO IDEs. The high transmittance, exceeding 75%, of the sensors at visible wavelengths holds promise for future applications to transparent gas sensors.

A new piezoelectric ultrasonic linear motor, shaped ‘Butterfly’ wings, has been developed for use in thin electronic products, such as cellular phones and PDAs. The butterfly piezoelectric transducer with a volume of 9 mm × 8 mm × 1 mm is composed of an elastic plate which includes a tip for energy transfer, two protrusions, and two piezoelectric ceramics. The ultra slim butterfly motor with a thickness of ∼1 mm could be achieved by positioning the layered piezoelectric transducer and a linear guide in parallel. The manufactured motor based on FEM analysis was successfully driven at the resonance frequency range that combines the longitudinal and transverse vibration modes. The maximum velocity of 88 mm/s was achieved at a driving frequency close to the pure vibration modes such as the longitudinal or transverse modes. In opposite, the maximum thrust force of 162 g was obtained at a middle frequency between two vibration modes.

Amorphous Bi5Nb3O15 (BNO) films were grown at room temperature (RT) on a Cu/Ti/SiO2 /Si substrate using radio frequency magnetron sputtering. All the films were well formed on the Cu electrode with a sharp interface between the film and the electrode. The dielectric constant of the amorphous BNO film grown under 25 W was 46, with a low dissipation factor of 2.7% at 100 kHz. This film exhibited a low leakage current density of 5.5 × 10-8 A/cm2 at 4.5 V and a large breakdown voltage of 7.2 V. However, the electrical properties deteriorated as the sputtering power and the growth temperature increased due to the increased surface roughness; this was because a film with a rough surface generally has a larger surface area, and there can be electric field intensification at surface asperity, which degrade the electrical properties of the film. In addition, the electrical properties were not influenced by the oxygen partial pressure (OPP) because the variation of OPP during the growth of the films did not affect their surface roughness. The amorphous BNO film grown on the Cu/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate at RT under 25 W may be a good candidate material for an embedded capacitor.

A formed device embedded-type 0402 sized (Ca 0.7 Sr 0.3 ) (Zr 0.8 Ti 0.2 )O 3 (CSZT) embedded capacitor was fabricated for use in embedded printed circuit board. The capacitance and dielectric loss of the CSZT embedded capacitor were 406.1 pF and 0.015, respectively, at 1 MHz. The CSZT embedded capacitor exhibits stable capacitance with varying applied voltage and C Zero G (-55 °C-125 °C, delta C/C = ±30 ppm/°C) properties. The measured values of equivalent series resistance and equivalent series inductance were 6.1 Ω and 62.39 μH, respectively. The leakage current density was 0.78 μA/cm 2 at 3 V of applied voltage. These electrical properties indicate that the CSZT embedded capacitor holds promise for use as an embedded passive capacitor.

Ring-type 33-mode piezoelectric energy harvesters (PEHs) were fabricated using Pb(Zr,Ti)O3- and (Na,K)NbO3-based piezoelectric ceramics. The relationship between the output performance of the PEH and the piezoelectric properties of the ceramics was investigated. Ring-type PEHs were selected for this investigation because they can be mounted on a specimen holder at the same position, ensuring structurally reliable output performance. The × Q m / value, which was reported as a figure of merit (FOM) of the PEH under resonance condition, could not adequately explain the output performances of the 33-mode PEH with a specimen holder much larger than the size of the specimen. The d 33 × g 33 value, which is a FOM derived from the theoretical output power of the 33-mode PEH, can explain the variation of the output power of the 33-mode PEH with a large specimen holder. However, since the variation of the output power was more accurately explained by the d 33 × g 33 × value, this was suggested as a new FOM of the output power of the ring-type 33-mode PEH with a large specimen holder.

Rutile TiOlsubg2l/subg, a high temperature phase, has attracted interests as a capacitor dielectric in dynamic random access memories (DRAMs). Despite its high dielectric constant of g 80, large leakage currents caused by a low Schottky barrier height at the TiOlsubg2l/subg/electrode interface have hindered the use of rutile TiOlsubg2l/subg as a commercial DRAM capacitor. Here, we propose a new Ru-Pt alloy electrode to increase the height of the Schottky barrier. The Ru-Pt mixed layer was grown by atomic layer deposition. The atomic ratio of Ru/Pt varied in the entire range from 100 at.% Ru to 100 at.% Pt. Rutile TiOlsubg2l/subg films were inductively formed only on the Ru-Pt layer containing 43 at.% Pt, while anatase TiOlsubg2l/subg films with a relatively low dielectric constant (~ 40) were formed at Pt compositions g 63 at.%. The Ru-Pt (40 - 50 at.%) layer also attained an increase in work function of ~ 0.3 - 0.4 eV, leading to improvement in the leakage currents of the TiOlsubg2l/subg/Ru-Pt capacitor. These findings suggested that Ru-Pt layer could serve as a promising electrode for next-generation DRAM capacitors.

We report the fabrication of a highly sensitive gas sensor based on a network of nanostructured TiO 2 hollow hemispheres (NTHH). O 2 plasma etching induces cross-linking of hexagonal-close-packed polystyrene array, which is adopted as a template substrate for room-temperature deposition of TiO 2 thin film. High-temperature calcination effectively removes polystyrene template beads and promotes crystallization of TiO 2 , finally producing cross-linked NTHH via nanobridges. The gas-sensing capability of a NTHH-based sensor is demonstrated using 1–500 ppm CO. Our sensor exhibits a very high response of 4220% change in resistance when exposed to 500 ppm CO at 250 °C, whereas a gas sensor based on a plain TiO 2 film shows a 195% change. The high sensitivity of the NTHH-based sensor is attributed to the enhanced gas sensing performance of the narrow nanobridges between hollow hemispheres.

Mn-doped Bi4Ti3O12 (M-B4T3) films were well formed on a TiN/SiO2/Si substrate at 200degC without buckling using RF magnetron sputtering. The leakage current density of these films was considerably influenced by the oxygen partial pressure (OPP), which was attributed to the presence of oxygen vacancies or oxygen interstitial ions. The film grown under 2.8-mtorr OPP showed the lowest leakage current density. The M-B4T3 films grown at 200degC showed a high dielectric constant of 38 with a low loss in both kilohertz and gigahertz ranges. The 39-nm-thick film showed a high capacitance density of 8.47 fF/mum2 at 100 kHz, and its temperature and quadratic voltage coefficients of capacitance were low at approximately 370 ppm/degC and 667 ppm/V2, respectively, with a low leakage current density of 7.8 times 10-8 A/cm2 at 2 V. Therefore, the M-B4T3 thin film grown on a TiN/SiO2/Si substrate is a good candidate material for high performance, radio frequency metal-insulator-metal capacitors.

Amorphous Bi5Nb3O15(B5 N3) film grown at 300degC showed a high-k value of 71 at 100 kHz, and similar k value was observed at 0.5-5.0 GHz. The 80-nm-thick film exhibited a high capacitance density of 7.8 fF/mum2 and a low dissipation factor of 0.95% at 100 kHz with a low leakage-current density of 1.23 nA/cm2 at 1 V. The quadratic and linear voltage coefficient of capacitances of the B5N3 film were 438 ppm/V2 and 456 ppm/V, respectively, with a low temperature coefficient of capacitance of 309 ppm/degC at 100 kHz. These results confirmed the potential of the amorphous B5N3 film as a good candidate material for a high-performance metal-insulator-metal capacitors.

Piezoelectric linear ultrasonic motors have been widely studied for auto focusing devices of digital cameras and cellular phones due to their simple structure. A piezoelectric motor operated at low voltages, not achievable using bulk piezoelectrics, is required for the camera module of cellular phone. In this study, a tiny piezoelectric linear motor was fabricated and its dynamic properties at low voltages were analyzed. To reduce the driving voltage, thin multilayer ceramics fabricated by a tape casting method were applied to the motor. The proper number of layers of the piezoelectric element was determined by ATILA simulation program. As a result of the simulation, the largest displacement of the shaft was observed at 21 layers. Characteristics of the motor were analyzed with respect to applied voltages and frictional forces between the mobile element and shaft. Velocity and force of the motor increased with increasing applied voltage. The motor exhibited a velocity of 10.9 mm/s and a thrust force of 110 mN at a frictional force of 62.5 mN and an applied voltage of 10 Vp-p.

A small crystalline phase was formed in the Bi1.5ZnNb1.5O7 (BZN) film grown at 300degC on TiN/SiO2/Si substrate using RF-magnetron sputtering. A 46-nm-thick BZN film exhibited a high capacitance density of 13.6 fF/mum2 at 100 kHz with a dielectric constant of 71, which did not change even in the gigahertz range (1-6 GHz). The quality factor was high, approximately 50, at 2.5 GHz. The leakage-current density was low, approximately 5.66 nA/cm2, at 2 V. The quadratic voltage and temperature coefficients of capacitance were approximately 631 ppm/V2 and 149 ppm/degC at 100 kHz, respectively. These results indicate that the BZN film grown on TiN substrate at 300degC can be a good candidate material for metal-insulator- metal capacitors.

Piezoelectric energy harvesting system is promising to the energy source of wireless sensor nodes for ubiquitous sensor networks. The piezoelectric material has been usually considered as a high voltage and low current source. When charging current into the thin film battery or supercapacitor, a larger current is needed to shorten the charging time. In order to increase the current in the piezoelectric energy harvesting, multilayer ceramics were fabricated. N-layer multilayer ceramics decreased the voltage but increased the current N times. The impedance of the multilayer ceramics are matched to 1 kΩ which is similar to the impedance of general electrical devices. The multilayer piezoelectric generator could be directly employed for electrical device without the additional electrical circuit to improve efficiency.