Systems and methods of providing power to high-voltage sensors in power-limited environments through environmental energy harvesting are disclosed. The systems and methods are configured to intermittently power high-voltage sensors by repeatedly releasing stored energy in bursts. An environmental energy harvesting device generates a low-voltage power supply and is coupled to one or more capacitors to charge the capacitors to a high-voltage threshold. After such high-voltage threshold has been reached, the capacitors are discharged to provide a high-voltage power burst to a high-voltage sensor configured to inspect a component and generate an inspection result signal. The inspection result signal is received by an output module, which may further store or transmit to an external receiver a data signal indicating the inspection results.

In a composite component, a semiconductor device is stacked on an elastic wave device. Side electrodes extend from at least one side surface of a piezoelectric substrate of the elastic wave device to at least a side surface of a semiconductor substrate of the semiconductor device and are connected to an IDT electrode and functional electrodes. The side electrodes extend onto at least one of a second main surface of the piezoelectric substrate and a second main surface of the semiconductor substrate.

The present application provides a human joint energy harvesting apparatus for capturing the biomechanical energy of a joint to generate electrical energy. The generated electrical energy may provide a real-time power supply to the wearable electronics. The apparatus employs a linear slide rail mechanism and cooperates with the user's first limb and second limb to form a slider-crank mechanism, which converts the rotating motion of the joint into a linear motion of the linear slide rail mechanism. The bending beam converts the linear motion of the linear slide rail mechanism into a bending motion. A piezoelectric film may be bonded to the upper and lower surfaces of the bending beam. During walking, the bending beam is deformed, causing the piezoelectric film to be stretched or compressed to generate electrical energy. To harvest more energy, the bending beam used in the apparatus is designed to be subjected to forced motion and free vibration, and a proof mass is attached to it. The present application also provides a wearable electronic device equipped with the human joint energy harvesting apparatus.

A piezoelectric thin film includes a first piezoelectric layer and a second piezoelectric layer directly stacked on the first piezoelectric layer. The first piezoelectric layer contains a tetragonal crystal 1 of a perovskite-type oxide. The second piezoelectric layer contains a tetragonal crystal 2 of a perovskite-type oxide. A (001) plane of the tetragonal crystal 1 is oriented in a normal direction do of a surface of the piezoelectric thin film. A (001) plane of the tetragonal crystal 2 is oriented in the normal direction dn of the surface of the piezoelectric thin film. An interval of the (001) plane of the tetragonal crystal 1 is c1, an interval of a (100) plane of the tetragonal crystal 1 is a1, an interval of the (001) plane of the tetragonal crystal 2 is c2, an interval of a (100) plane of the tetragonal crystal 2 is a2, c2/a2 is more than c1/a1 and c1/a1 is from 1.015 to 1.050.

According to one embodiment, a flexible substrate includes a line portion including a support plate including a first surface, a flexible insulating base located on the first surface and a wiring layer disposed on the insulating base, a piezoelectric material covering the line portion, a protective member located on the piezoelectric material and an island-shaped first electrode provided on the insulating base.

A piezoelectric element that includes a substrate, a lower electrode layer on the substrate, an intermediate layer on the lower electrode layer, and an upper electrode layer on the intermediate layer. The intermediate layer includes a first piezoelectric layer including an aluminum nitride as a main component thereof and located between the lower electrode layer and the upper electrode layer, a first buffer layer including an aluminum nitride as a main component and located between the first piezoelectric layer and the upper electrode layer, a first intermediate electrode layer located between the first buffer layer and the upper electrode layer, and a second piezoelectric layer located between the first intermediate electrode layer and the upper electrode layer.

Highly deformable heterostructures utilizing liquid metals and nanostructures that are suitable for various applications, including but not limited to stretchable electronic devices that can be worn, for example, by a human being. Such a deformable heterostructure includes a stretchable substrate, a conductive liquid metal on the substrate, and nanostructures forming a solid-liquid heterojunction with the conductive liquid metal.

A piezoelectric device includes a piezoelectric body at least a portion of which can bend and vibrate, an upper electrode on an upper surface of the piezoelectric body and in which distortion of a crystal lattice is reduced as a distance from the upper surface of the piezoelectric body increases, a lower electrode on a lower surface of the piezoelectric body and in which distortion of a crystal lattice is reduced as a distance from the upper surface of the piezoelectric body increases, and a support substrate below the piezoelectric body, in which a recess extending from a lower surface of the support substrate toward the lower surface of the piezoelectric device is provided.

A polymer thin film includes polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and is characterized by a Young's modulus along an in-plane dimension of at least 4 GPa, an electromechanical coupling factor (k.sub.31) of at least 0.1 at room temperature. A method of manufacturing such a polymer thin film may include forming a polymer composition into a polymer thin film, applying a tensile stress to the polymer thin film along at least one in-plane direction and in an amount effective to induce a stretch ratio of at least approximately 5 in the polymer thin film, and applying an electric field across a thickness dimension of the polymer thin film. Annealing and poling steps may separately or simultaneously accompany and/or follow the act of stretching of the polymer thin film.

This disclosure describes techniques of configuring capacitive comb fingers of an accelerometer resonator into discreet electrodes with drive electrodes and at least two sense electrodes. The routing of electrical signals is configured to produce parasitic feedthrough capacitances that are approximately equal. The sense electrodes may be placed on opposite sides of the moving resonator beams such that the changes in capacitance with respect to displacement (e.g. dC/dx) are approximately equal in magnitude and opposite in sign. The arrangement may result in sense currents that are also opposite in sign and result in feedthrough currents of the same sign. The sense outputs from the resonators may be connected to a differential amplifier, such that the difference in output currents may mitigate the effect of the feedthrough currents and cancel parasitic feedthrough capacitance. Parasitic feedthrough capacitance may cause increased accelerometer noise and reduced bias stability.