A piezoelectric body contains potassium, sodium, and niobium, and has a perovskite structure. A Raman shift of peaks assigned to A.sub.1g obtained by performing Raman spectroscopic analysis on a plurality of measurement regions is 400 cm.sup.−1 or more and 700 cm.sup.−1 or less. A difference between a maximum value and a minimum value of the Raman shift among the peaks in the plurality of measurement regions is 11.0 cm.sup.−1 or less.

Display panel and display apparatus including the same. A display panel includes a first substrate including a display portion configured to display an image, a second substrate attached to the first substrate by an adhesive member, and a vibration generating module within the adhesive member to overlap the display portion. The vibration generating module is surrounded by the second substrate and the adhesive member.

A layered solid element includes a ferroelectric layer of a crystalline material Li.sub.1−x(Nb.sub.1−yTa.sub.y).sub.1+xO.sub.3+2x−z which has X- or 33° Y-orientation with respect to a substrate of the layered solid element. The ferroelectric layer is grown epitaxially from a buffer layer having of one of the chemical formulae L.sub.kNi.sub.rO.sub.1.5.Math.(k+r)+w or L.sub.n+1Ni.sub.nO.sub.3n+1+δ, where L is a lanthanide element. Such layered solid element may form a thin-film bulk acoustic resonator and be useful for integrated electronic circuits such as RF-filters, or guided optical devices such as integrated optical modulators.

The present invention provides a spring mechanism which can elastically deform an elastic deformation part with a film shape of a transducer into a shape having high symmetry, and also can be structured in a small size. A spring mechanism 2 includes: a cylindrical member 7 that is provided so as to extend toward a first element member 21 from an elastic deformation part 11 of a transducer 5, and also is arranged so as to slidably penetrate the first element member 21 in the direction of a central axis line C of the elastic deformation part 11; and a rod member 32 that is provided so as to extend toward the cylindrical member 7 from a second element member 22 side, and is slidably inserted in the cylindrical member 7 in the direction of the central axis line C of the elastic deformation part 11.

Transducer systems disclosed herein include self-sensing capabilities. In particular, electrostatic transducers include a low voltage electrode and a high voltage electrode. A low voltage sensing unit is coupled with the low voltage electrode of the electrostatic transducer. The low voltage sensing unit is configured to measure a capacitance of the electrostatic transducer, from which displacement of the electrostatic transducer may be calculated. High voltage drive signals received by the high voltage electrode during actuation may be isolated from the low voltage sensing unit. The isolation may be provided by dielectric material of the electrostatic transducer, a voltage suppression component, and/or a voltage suppression module comprising a low impedance ground path. In the event of an electrical failure of the transducer, the low voltage sensing unit may be isolated from high voltages.

According to one aspect of the invention, there is proposed a capacitive radiofrequency MicroElectroMechanical System or capacitive RF MEMS comprising a metallic membrane suspended above an RF transmission line and resting on ground planes, and exhibiting a lower face, an upper face opposite to the lower face and a first layer comprising a refractory metallic material at least partially covering the upper face of the membrane so as to prevent the heating of the membrane.

A method for fabricating an electronic device including a semiconductor memory includes: forming a variable resistance element including material layers over a substrate; forming a hard mask layer including a metal over the material layers; selectively etching the hard mask layer to form an etched hard mask layer; etching the material layers by using the etched hard mask layer as an etch barrier, the etching of the material layers providing an etch byproduct formed on sidewalls of the etched material layers and the etch byproduct including a material that is more readily oxidized than the metal of the hard mask layer; and performing a treatment using a gas or plasma to suppresses oxidation of the hard mask layer and facilitate oxidation of the etch byproducts.

Magnetoelectric sensors that can be manufactured using known methods of thin film technology and output an ME voltage that is many times higher for a predetermined magnetic field than the known cantilever-beam sensor. The design that is termed separator ME sensor is characterized by the arrangement of a thick dielectric layer (14) between the ferroelectric (10) and the magnetostrictive phases (12), and by an electrode arrangement (18) applied on one side of the ferroelectric (10) and that is engineered to tap the ME voltage along the extent of the layer. Advantageously, it can be manufactured easily by coating conventional dielectric substrates (14) on the front and rear with one each of the functional layers (10, 12).

Switchable and/or tunable filters, methods of manufacture and design structures are disclosed herein. The method of forming the filters includes forming at least one piezoelectric filter structure comprising a plurality of electrodes formed on a piezoelectric substrate. The method further includes forming a fixed electrode with a plurality of fingers on the piezoelectric substrate. The method further includes forming a moveable electrode with a plurality of fingers over the piezoelectric substrate. The method further includes forming actuators aligned with one or more of the plurality of fingers of the moveable electrode.

An RF circuit device using modified lattice, lattice, and ladder circuit topologies. The devices can include four resonator devices and four shunt resonator devices. In the ladder topology, the resonator devices are connected in series from an input port to an output port while shunt resonator devices are coupled the nodes between the resonator devices. In the lattice topology, a top and a bottom serial configurations each includes a pair of resonator devices that are coupled to differential input and output ports. A pair of shunt resonators is cross-coupled between each pair of a top serial configuration resonator and a bottom serial configuration resonator. The modified lattice topology adds baluns or inductor devices between top and bottom nodes of the top and bottom serial configurations of the lattice configuration. These topologies may be applied using single crystal or polycrystalline bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonators.