A component for the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle includes a rigid supporting body, made of plastic material, an outer upholstery skin, made of plastic material, and a padding body made of foamed plastic material, which is set between the rigid body and the outer upholstery skin. The rigid body and the outer skin have portions formed by a polymeric material with carbon-based nanofillers, which have respective inner surfaces facing the padding body, which include one or more paths where said polymeric material with carbon-based nanofillers has been rendered electrically conductive by laser irradiation to define one or more electrical circuits, and one or more piezoresistive areas where the polymeric material has been rendered piezoresistive by laser irradiation to define one or more electrical switches, which can be activated by exerting a localized pressure on the outer upholstery skin.

The disclosure relates to a temperature sensitive system. The system includes a powder, a detector, a first electrode, a second electrode and an actuator. The powder, the detector, the first electrode, the second electrode and the actuator are connected to form a loop circuit. The actuator can deform in response to temperature change so that the circuit to be on or off. The detector is connected to the actuator in parallel or in series and configured to show the current change of the loop circuit to the user. The actuator includes a carbon nanotube layer and a vanadium dioxide layer (VO.sub.2) layer stacked with each other. Because the drastic, reversible phase transition of VO.sub.2, the actuator has giant deformation amplitude and fast response and the temperature sensitive system has high sensitivity.

Examples are disclosed that relate to magnetically aligned switching circuits. One disclosed example provides an electronic component comprising a first terminal, a second terminal, and a deformable host material arranged between the first terminal and the second terminal. Aligned magnetically within the host material is an ensemble of particles each comprising a ferromagnetic material, each particle having greater electrical conductivity than the host material. The ensemble of particles is configured to form at least one complete conduction path from the first terminal to the second terminal.

A fuse production method includes the steps of forming a liquid film of a dispersion liquid, in which metal nanoparticles are dispersed in a solvent, on a principal surface of a substrate containing at least an organic substance, heating the liquid film so as to vaporize the solvent to melt or sinter the metal nanoparticles and to soften or melt the principal surface, and forming a fuse film on the principal surface by fusing the melted or sintered metal nanoparticles and the softened or melted principal surface with each other.

The present invention relates to a new silver-based electrical contact material, in which silver is in a continuous phase and carbon being in a nano-dispersed phase is dispersed in continuous phase silver. The content of the dispersed phase carbon in the silver-based electrical contact material can be 0.02% to 5% by weight, on the basis of the total weight of the silver-based electrical contact material. According to the present invention, the carbon contains carbon in a diamond form. Such a silver-based electrical contact material shows excellent mechanical wear resistance and electrical performance.

A switch of nonmetallic macromolecular conductive material being water-resistant and resistant to oxidation includes a circuit board having electronic circuitry and a plurality of electrical contact assemblies on a top surface; and a plurality of elastic members mounted on the circuit board and each including a bottom opening, and a stem on a bottom of a top extending downward toward the bottom opening. Each electrical contact assembly is surrounded by the elastic member and the circuit board. An electrically conductive member made of nonmetallic macromolecular conductive material is formed on a bottom of the stem. An electrical contact made of nonmetallic macromolecular conductive material is formed on each electrical contact assembly. A process of manufacturing same is also included.

A MEMS/NEMS actuator based on a phase change material is described in which the volumetric change observed when the phase change material changes from a crystalline phase to an amorphous phase is used to effectuate motion in the device. The phase change material may be changed from crystalline phase to amorphous phase by heating with a heater or by passing current directly through the phase change material, and thereafter quenched quickly by dissipating heat into a substrate. The phase change material may be changed from the amorphous phase to a crystalline phase by heating at a lower temperature. An application of the actuator is described to fabricate a phase change nano relay in which the volumetric expansion of the actuator is used to push a contact across an airgap to bring it into contact with a source/drain.

A mechanism comprising a plurality of parts of which a first part comprises a first contact surface and a second part comprises a second contact surface arranged to move in relation to, and in contact with, the first contact surface. The first contact surface is provided by a multilayer coating directly on a surface of a metallic substrate of the first part. The multilayer coating comprises: a base layer arrangement arranged directly on the surface of the substrate; a composite layer arranged on top of the base layer arrangement, the composite layer consisting of particles of a Graphene and Related Materials (GRM) material in a metal matrix; and a metallic top layer arranged directly on top of the composite layer.