There are included: an oscillating member that includes a tough layer and a magnetostrictive layer stacked above the tough layer and formed of a magnetostrictive material, the tough layer formed of a tough material having a tensile strength higher than that of the magnetostrictive material; a supporting member to which the oscillating member is attached to be able to oscillate in the thickness direction; a magnetic field applying member that applies a magnetic field to the magnetostrictive layer; and a coil that is disposed around the magnetostrictive layer.

A load sensor includes a core having a hollow part provided therein and containing magnetic material and a coil attached to the core. A magnetic path along which a magnetic flux generated by a current flowing in the coil is formed along a circumference direction of the hollow part. The core has a load-receiving portion that receives a load at a surface of the core located in a crossing direction crossing a plane along which the magnetic path is formed.

A nanometer-scale precision actuator comprises a base, an intermediate structure, an output interface, and two linear elements producing a controllable extension in the same longitudinal direction, each between a first and a second end. A first of the two elements has a first end fixed onto the intermediate structure and a second end fixed onto the base, a second of the two elements has a first end fixed onto the intermediate structure and a second end fixed to the output interface. The base and the intermediate structure are positioned in such a manner that the controllable extension of the second element produces a displacement of the actuator in a first direction and the controllable extension of the first element produces a displacement of the actuator in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, with respect to the base.

A collision sensor device for a medical apparatus includes a sensor structure having a first sensor and a second sensor that are separated by a spacer layer, at least one crumple layer that adjoins one of the first sensor and the second sensor and is configured to provide a run-on path, and an outer surface layer provided on a side facing away from the medical apparatus in an installed state of the collision sensor device.

A piezoelectric fiber composite and a magnetoelectric laminate composite including the same are disclosed. The piezoelectric fiber composite includes a first protective layer having a first electrode, a second protective layer having a second electrode, and a piezoelectric fiber layer formed between the first and the second electrode and having piezoelectric fibers arranged in the longitudinal direction of the composite, wherein the piezoelectric fibers include a single-crystal piezoelectric material and are configured such that a <011> direction of the single crystal is identical to a thickness direction of the composite and a <001> direction of the single crystal is identical to a longitudinal direction of the composite, thus exhibiting superior piezoelectric strain properties and sensing properties. Also, the magnetoelectric laminate composite includes the piezoelectric fiber composite and a magnetostrictive layer including a magnetostrictive material such as nickel (Ni) or Metglas (FeBSi alloy), thus ensuring significantly improved magnetoelectric properties.

Exemplary practice of the present invention provides a magnetostrictive actuator characterized by linear force output and uniform magnetic biasing. A center bias magnet drives flux through series magnetostrictive bars in opposite directions while surrounding drive coils apply flux in the same direction through the bars. The net response is substantially linear with respect to the drive coil current. A second parallel set of magnetostrictive bars completes the flux path and adds to the actuator output force. Flux leakage between the parallel bars is compensated by a ferromagnetic shunt or by a tapered magnet providing uniform flux density down the length of the magnetostrictive bars. The closed flux path allows magnetic shielding of the entire actuator, if desired.

A strain sensor having an active area that includes a magnetoelastic resonator and spring configured so that the spring undergoes a greater amount of strain than the resonator when the sensor is under load. The sensor is anchored at opposite ends of the active area to a substrate for which strain is to be measured. An interrogating coil is used for wireless sensor readout. A biasing magnet may be included to provide a desired sensor response for the particular application of the sensor. The strain sensor may be implemented as a differential strain sensor that includes a second, strain-independent reference resonator.

A method of fabricating in-plane or out-of-plane thin-film multi-axial magnetic anisotropy devices is provided that includes either depositing a magnetic material with perpendicular or partially perpendicular anisotropy patterned into a multi-directional, curved, or closed path or depositing a thin-film of magnetic material on a piezoelectric material, where the magnetic material is arranged in a pattern, depositing excitation electrodes on the piezoelectric material, where the excitation electrodes are arranged in a pattern, biasing the piezoelectric material, by applying a voltage across the excitation electrodes, where an electric field through the piezoelectric material is generated by the applied voltage across the excitation electrodes, where the piezoelectric material is biased by the electric field to provide stress to the magnetic material, where the stress rotates a magnetization of the magnetic material, and patterning the magnetic material into a multi-directional, curved, or closed path.

A method of imparting motion includes contracting a portion of a magnetic shape memory (MSM) element in response to a magnetic field to form an indentation on a surface of the MSM element. The method further includes retaining a protrusion from a surface of a movable part at the indentation. The method also includes moving the movable part by changing a position of the indentation in response to a change in the magnetic field.

An actuator device having an expansion unit (10), which comprises a magnetically active shape memory alloy material (12) and which carries out an expansion movement from a starting position along an expansion direction as a reaction to an energization of a coil device (30) and interacts with restoring means which exert on the expansion unit (10) a restoring force opposite to the expansion direction, wherein the restoring force has permanent magnets which act or are seated on a section of the expansion unit (10) such that the restoring force generated magnetically by the permanent magnets changes with increasing expansion stroke in the expansion direction, wherein the permanent magnets (16, 34, 40, 52, 54) are embodied and/or designed such that the expansion unit (10) can contract into the starting position along the expansion stroke when the coil device (30) is not energized.