A piezoelectric actuator includes: a vibration plate: a first piezoelectric body arranged on one side in a thickness direction of the vibration plate; a second piezoelectric body arranged on a side, of the first piezoelectric body, opposite to the vibration plate in the thickness direction; a first electrode arranged between the vibration plate and the first piezoelectric body; a second electrode arranged between the first and second piezoelectric bodies in the thickness direction, and overlapping with the first electrode in the thickness direction; and a third electrode arranged on a side, of the second piezoelectric body, opposite to the first piezoelectric body in the thickness direction, and overlapping with the second electrode in the thickness direction. The second piezoelectric body covers at least a part of a first end surface, of the first piezoelectric body, which is an end surface in a first direction orthogonal to the thickness direction.

A piezoelectric motor may include a stator, a rotor rotating about a rotational axis and at least one piezoelectric element driving the rotor and maintained by the stator. Mechanical reliability and performance levels of a piezoelectric motor may be increased in that the at least one piezoelectric element may be mounted in an oscillating housing that oscillates with respect to the stator about the pivot axis.

In one general aspect, various embodiments are directed to an ultrasonic surgical instrument that comprises a transducer configured to produce vibrations along a longitudinal axis at a predetermined frequency. In various embodiments, an ultrasonic blade extends along the longitudinal axis and is coupled to the transducer. In various embodiments, the ultrasonic blade includes a body having a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the distal end is movable relative to the longitudinal axis by the vibrations produced by the transducer.

In one general aspect, various embodiments are directed to an ultrasonic surgical instrument that comprises a transducer configured to produce vibrations along a longitudinal axis at a predetermined frequency. In various embodiments, an ultrasonic blade extends along the longitudinal axis and is coupled to the transducer. In various embodiments, the ultrasonic blade includes a body having a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the distal end is movable relative to the longitudinal axis by the vibrations produced by the transducer.

In one general aspect, various embodiments are directed to an ultrasonic surgical instrument that comprises a transducer configured to produce vibrations along a longitudinal axis at a predetermined frequency. In various embodiments, an ultrasonic blade extends along the longitudinal axis and is coupled to the transducer. In various embodiments, the ultrasonic blade includes a body having a proximal end and a distal end, wherein the distal end is movable relative to the longitudinal axis by the vibrations produced by the transducer.

An electromechanical device comprising: first and second electrodes each comprising a metal layer; an active layer comprising at least one ferroelectric polymer and disposed between the first and the second electrode. The first electrode and the second electrode each comprise an interface layer comprising poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene). Each interface layer is interposed between the active layer and the corresponding metal layer. The invention further relates to a method for manufacturing such a device.

A bender bar transducer having stacked encapsulated actuators provides improved acoustic power over a wider frequency range, low applied voltage requirements and consistent part-to-part performance.

There is provided a piezoelectric element in which dielectric breakdown or breakage is less prone to occur even in long term use at a high voltage; and an acoustic generator, an acoustic generation device, and an electronic apparatus employing the same. A piezoelectric element includes: a stacked body in which a plurality of internal electrodes and piezoelectric layers are laminated, the stacked body having a rectangular shape in a plan view thereof; and a plurality of connecting electrodes connected to one ends of the plurality of internal electrodes, respectively, corner portions of the other ends of the plurality of internal electrodes being chamfered.

A method for producing a piezoelectric stack actuator and a piezoelectric stack actuator are disclosed. To increase service life of a piezoelectric stack actuator made up of individual actuators, includes providing at least two actuators the method and designed and configured to generate a deflection along an axis (A) when electrically activated; and coupling the at least two actuators to form the stack actuator such that deflections of the actuators generated when the actuators are electrically activated are overlaid along a stacking axis (S) and there is a force-coupling of the actuators over at least one coupling area (K) that is smaller than a projection area (P) of the actuator onto a plane (E) perpendicular to the stacking axis.

A sampling front-end for analog to digital converter is presented that shares a high speed N-bit ADC at front-end and interleaves the pipelined residue amplification with shared amplifier, which achieves high speed, low power and compact area with high density capacitive DAC structure.