A method for producing a plurality of piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements, the method comprising providing or depositing a piezoelectric material on at least part of a surface of a sheet of substrate to form a layered member; and forming the one or more piezoelectric ultrasound transducer elements from the layered member.

Described herein are hierarchical porous Pd@PdPt yolk-shell nanoarchitectonics and hollow PdPt nanocages hydrogen sensors, methods of producing the hydrogen sensors, and methods of using the sensors to detect H.sub.2 under ambient conditions.

The sensor is configured to provide a digital output signal and has a digital detector, which is configured to detect a physical quantity and generate a conditioned digital signal indicative of the detected physical quantity; and a rate modification stage, configured to receive the conditioned digital signal and a group of parameters, the group of parameters comprising an interpolation factor and a downsampling factor, and to provide the digital output signal. The rate modification stage has an interpolator and a decimation element. The interpolator is configured to receive and to upsample the conditioned digital signal based on the interpolation factor and to provide an interpolated signal. The decimation element is configured to downsample the interpolated signal based on the downsampling factor, thereby generating the digital output signal.

A microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensor assembly comprises a substrate, a bump stopper extending from the substrate, and a sensor suspended relative to the substrate. The sensor is configured to move relative to the substrate, wherein the bump stopper is configured to restrain the sensor travel distance and prevent contact between the sensor and the substrate. The bump stopper has a surface facing the sensor, wherein an area of contact between the sensor and the surface is less than the total area of the surface.

A method for producing a micromechanical layer structure with a high aspect ratio of a layer thickness to a distance of a first structural element from an adjacent second structural element in a main direction of extent of the layer structure. The method including: providing a substrate with an etching stop layer and a micromechanical functional layer; forming at least one recess in the functional layer by etching as far as the etching stop layer; depositing an intermediate layer sequence including a first insulation layer, an intermediate layer, and a second insulation layer; filling the recess by depositing a filling layer; planarizing the surface of the filling layer; etching the intermediate layer by etching access points through the intermediate layer sequence; exposing the first and second structural elements by etching the first insulation layer and the second insulation layer by a second etching process.