According to various embodiments of the disclosure, an electronic device may include a housing including a first plate facing in a first direction and a second plate facing in a second direction opposite to the first direction, and a key assembly disposed on at least part of the first plate and including a plurality of keys for inputting data by a pressing operation, wherein the key assembly includes a keycap, a printed circuit board, a support structure disposed on the printed circuit board to support the keycap and supporting a pressing operation of the keycap, a contact point portion disposed between the support structure and the printed circuit board, a movable portion coupled to the support structure in the second direction, and an actuator coupled to the movable portion and providing a force for moving the keycap in the first direction or the second direction depending on whether the actuator is activated.

A brake mechanism for a brake caster is disclosed. In various embodiments, the brake mechanism includes a roller cylinder having a hollow interior and an inner cylindrical surface; a brake shaft disposed within the hollow interior of the roller cylinder and having an outer cylindrical surface; a piezoelectric disk disposed within the hollow interior of the roller cylinder; and a rotor disk disposed adjacent the piezoelectric disk.

A fluid jet dispenser using at least two multilayer piezoelectric actuators is provided. The fluid jet dispenser includes a dispensing head and an electrical driver. The dispensing head includes at least two d.sub.31-mode multilayer piezoelectric actuators, a displacement magnifying element mechanically coupled to the d31-mode multilayer piezoelectric actuators, a piston, and a nozzle. More preferably, the two d31-mode multilayer piezoelectric actuators operate in an anti-phase condition. The electrical driver is electrically coupled to the d31-mode multilayer piezoelectric actuators for displacing the actuators in directions substantially perpendicular to polarization of piezoelectric layers in the d31-mode multilayer piezoelectric actuators in response to charging and discharging of the actuators by the electrical driver, to generate a fast movement of the piston to jet a pressurized fluid out of the nozzle of the dispensing head.

A pre-loaded piezoelectric stack actuator comprising a stack of piezoelectric material. Caps are coupled at opposed ends of the stack. Each of the caps includes projecting fingers. Insulating plates are stacked between the ends of the stack and the caps. A pair of pre-loaded spring plates are coupled to the stack. The spring plates define slots. The fingers on the caps extend through respective ones of the slots at respective ends of the spring plates for coupling the spring plates to the stack. A method of pre-loading the piezoelectric stack actuator includes the step of mounting the stack, the caps, the insulating plates, and the spring plates in a pre-load tool that applies a pre-load tensile stretching force to the spring plates. The pre-load tensile force is subsequently released and the actuator is removed from the tool.

A matching control method for mechanical impedance of a magnetostrictive precision transducer includes developing a three-layer neural network model corresponding to a Young's modulus of a Terfenol-D material; acquiring sample data to form a training sample set and a testing sample set; training the model using a Bayesian regularization training algorithm, and optimizing connection weights and thresholds among layers of the tested model, so as to obtain a final three-layer neural network model; based on the final model, building an inverse model of mechanical impedance of the magnetostrictive precision transducer; using a current level of impedance of a load as an input of the inverse model to obtain a bias magnetic field, and changing a level of the bias magnetic field by changing a bias current in an excitation coil of the transducer, thereby achieving adaptive matching between the mechanical impedance of the transducer and the impedance of the load.

A pen-shaped input and/or output device and a method for generating a haptic signal are disclosed. In an embodiment a device includes an actuator unit that has a piezoelectric actuator, wherein the device is a pen-shaped input and/or output device, wherein the pen-shaped input and/or output is configured to use the piezoelectric actuator as a sensor, wherein the piezoelectric actuator is configured to generate a voltage as a result of an actuation of the pen-shaped input and/or output device, and wherein the pen-shaped input and/or output device has a second electronics circuit configured to detect the voltage generated by the piezoelectric actuator and store a characteristic value for the voltage generated.

A device having a piezoelectric actuator, which can both detect the actuation force and provide a haptic feedback. The linear expansion of the actuator can be amplified in the desired direction by a deformable metal sheet. The actuator has a flat piezoelectric basic body having plane-parallel main surfaces and two electrodes. The body is designed to generate an active haptic feedback when a force exerted upon the basic body is detected. The haptic feedback is generated in that an actuator voltage, which, by piezoelectric actuator action, results in a change in the length of the basic body, is applied between the electrodes. A cymbal-shaped metal sheet is fastened to the basic body. The body is fixed with the truncated cone vertices between a base and an actuation means connected to the base and fixed by means of a bias, which is set as tensile or compressive stress.

An optical element driving mechanism is provided, including a movable portion, a fixed portion, a driving assembly, and a support element. The movable portion is used for connecting to an optical element having a main axis. The movable portion is movable relative to the fixed portion. The driving assembly is used for driving the movable portion to move relative to the fixed portion. The movable portion moves relative to the fixed portion through the support element.

A light intensity modulator includes an input optical fiber; an output optical fiber; an optical arrangement having a lens, where the optical arrangement is configured to receive light from the input optical fiber, pass the light through the lens, and direct the light to the output optical fiber; and a piezoelectric device coupled to the lens, where the piezoelectric device is configured for moving the lens to alter overlap of the output optical fiber and the light directed to the output optical fiber to modulate intensity of light in the output optical fiber.

A light intensity modulator includes an input optical fiber; an output optical fiber; an optical arrangement having a lens, where the optical arrangement is configured to receive light from the input optical fiber, pass the light through the lens, and direct the light to the output optical fiber; and a piezoelectric device coupled to the lens, where the piezoelectric device is configured for moving the lens to alter overlap of the output optical fiber and the light directed to the output optical fiber to modulate intensity of light in the output optical fiber.