There is provided an imaging device including: an imaging element provided with a photoelectric converter for each pixel, and having a light-receiving surface and a non-light-receiving surface opposed to the light-receiving surface; and an electric element including a support substrate and a floating section, the support substrate provided on side of the non-light-receiving surface of the imaging element and opposed to the imaging element, and the floating section provided between the support substrate and the imaging element, and disposed with a gap interposed between the floating section and each of the support substrate and the imaging element.

A micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) device includes a silicon substrate; and a Tantalum (Ta) layer comprising a first portion and a second portion, a first portion being suspended over the silicon substrate and configured to move relative to the silicon substrate, and the second portion of the structure being coupled to the silicon substrate and fixed in place relative to the silicon substrate. MEMS devices including accelerometers, gyroscopes, microphones, etc. can be fabricated in which Ta forms the structure material of the MEMS components on a chip. The Ta and integrated circuit (IC) can be fabricated together in a single package in which the MEMS structure is able to use the full area above the IC in the package.

A direct drive scanning micromirror includes a mirror body defining a mirror surface, and a plurality of curved cantilevers that each extend directly from the mirror body. The shape of the cantilevers and the geometry of the interface between the cantilevers and the mirror body are configured to decrease peak stresses within the micromirror during operation, which may beneficially impact performance and lifetime.

A sensor including one or more transistors; and one or more sensing elements, wherein an edge behaves as moving gate of said one or more transistors, an electric field is applied to said edge, said one or more transistors is/are biased, said one or more sensing elements is/are flexible, source and drain wells of said one or more transistors can be coplanar or stacked, said edge can move in a lateral or a parallel direction with respect to a transistor current, said edge can move in a vertical or a perpendicular direction with respect to said transistor current, and the magnitude of the change in said drain current determines the sensitivity.

A semiconductor substrate includes a first semiconductor layer, a first dielectric layer coupled to the first semiconductor layer, and a second semiconductor layer coupled to the first dielectric layer. The second semiconductor layer includes a base portion substantially aligned with the first dielectric layer and a cantilever portion protruding from an end of the first dielectric layer. The cantilever portion includes a tapered surface tapering from a bottom surface of the second semiconductor layer toward a top surface of the second semiconductor layer.

A micro-electromechanical-system (MEMS) device may be formed to include an anti-stiction polysilicon layer on one or more moveable MEMS structures of a device wafer of the MEMS device to reduce, minimize, and/or eliminate stiction between the moveable MEMS structures and other components or structures of the MEMS device. The anti-stiction polysilicon layer may be formed such that a surface roughness of the anti-stiction polysilicon layer is greater than the surface roughness of a bonding polysilicon layer on the surfaces of the device wafer that are to be bonded to a circuitry wafer of the MEMS device. The higher surface roughness of the anti-stiction polysilicon layer may reduce the surface area of the bottom of the moveable MEMS structures, which may reduce the likelihood that the one or more moveable MEMS structures will become stuck to the other components or structures.

Aspects include piezoelectric acoustic transducers and systems for acoustic transduction. In some aspects, an acoustic transducer is structured with a silicon substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface, where the top surface has a first portion and an edge along the first portion associated with an acoustic aperture. The transducer has a first silicon oxide layer disposed over the first portion of the top surface of the silicon substrate, a polysilicon layer disposed over the first silicon oxide layer, and a second silicon oxide layer disposed over the polysilicon layer. A cantilevered beam comprising a fixed end, a deflection end, a top surface, and a bottom surface, has a first portion of the bottom surface at the fixed end disposed over the second silicon oxide layer, where a second portion of the bottom surface at the deflection end is formed over the acoustic aperture. In some aspects. transducer elements are reconfigurable between parallel and serial configurations depending on a system operating mode.

A micro-electromechanical-system (MEMS) device may be formed to include an anti-stiction polysilicon layer on one or more moveable MEMS structures of a device wafer of the MEMS device to reduce, minimize, and/or eliminate stiction between the moveable MEMS structures and other components or structures of the MEMS device. The anti-stiction polysilicon layer may be formed such that a surface roughness of the anti-stiction polysilicon layer is greater than the surface roughness of a bonding polysilicon layer on the surfaces of the device wafer that are to be bonded to a circuitry wafer of the MEMS device. The higher surface roughness of the anti-stiction polysilicon layer may reduce the surface area of the bottom of the moveable MEMS structures, which may reduce the likelihood that the one or more moveable MEMS structures will become stuck to the other components or structures.

Disclosed herein is a microelectromechanical device that features a fixed structure defining a cavity, a tiltable structure elastically suspended within the cavity, and a piezoelectrically driven actuation structure that rotates the tiltable structure about a first rotation axis. The actuation structure includes driving arms with piezoelectric material, elastically coupled to the tiltable structure by decoupling elastic elements that are stiff to out-of-plane movements but compliant to torsional movements. The tiltable structure is elastically coupled to the fixed structure at the first rotation axis using elastic suspension elements, while the fixed structure forms a frame surrounding the cavity with supporting elements. A lever mechanism is coupled between a supporting element and a driving arm.

There is provided a piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems microphone comprising a sensor including at least one piezoelectric layer, at least one constraint in contact with the sensor at a position, such that the sensor is supported by the at least one constraint, and such that the sensor that the sensor has a membrane region to one side of the at least one constraint and a cantilevered region to the other side of the at least one constraint and a cavity defined at least partially by the at least one constraint. There is also provided a method of manufacturing the microphone.