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Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Piezoelectric and piezoresistive materials have been well-tailored for mechanical and bio sensors, thanks to their excellent properties, such as high sensitivity, simple readout circuit, and miniaturization capability. Applications of these effects can be found in a broad range of Micro/Nano ElectroMechanial System (MEMS/NEMS) sensors, including strain sensors, pressure sensors, accelerometers, and bio-mass detectors. This Special Issue focuses on cutting-edge technologies of piezoelectric and piezoresistive materials, aiming at advanced developments of nanostructured, flexible, wearable, and self powered sensing-devices. We greatly welcome review papers, experimental studies, as well as theoretical analyses, of novel piezoelectric and piezoresistive materials.

In particular, topics of interest include, but not limited to:

Advanced deposition/growth processes of piezoelectric and piezoresistive thin films;
Characterization of novel piezoelectric and piezoresistive materials;
Quantum confinement and nanoscale effects in piezoresistive/piezoelectric materials;
Advanced micro/nano fabrication methods;
Applications of the piezoelectric and piezoresistive effects.

Dr. Hoang-Phuong Phan
Guest Editor

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

9 pages, 2609 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperCommunication

Strain-Mediated Substrate Effect on the Dielectric and Ferroelectric Response of Potassium Sodium Niobate Thin Films

by Alexander Tkach, André Santos, Sebastian Zlotnik, Ricardo Serrazina, Olena Okhay, Igor Bdikin, Maria Elisabete Costa and Paula M. Vilarinho

Coatings 2018, 8(12), 449; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings8120449 - 06 Dec 2018

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3936

Abstract

If piezoelectric thin films sensors based on K_0.5Na_0.5NbO₃ (KNN) are to achieve commercialization, it is critical to optimize the film performance using low-cost scalable processing and substrates. Here, sol–gel derived KNN thin films are deposited using a solution with 5% of potassium excess on Pt/TiO₂/SiO₂/Si and Pt/SrTiO₃ substrates, and rapid thermal annealed at 750 °C for 5 min. Despite an identical film morphology and thickness of ~335 nm, an in-plane stress/strain state is found to be tensile for KNN films on Pt/TiO₂/SiO₂/Si, and compressive for those on Pt/SrTiO₃ substrates, being related to thermal expansion mismatch between the substrate and the film. Correspondingly, KNN films under in-plane compressive stress possess superior dielectric permittivity and polarization in the parallel-plate-capacitor geometry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Piezoresistive and Piezoelectric Thin Films for Sensors)

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16 pages, 15299 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Improvements of Piezo-Actuated Stick–Slip Micro-Drives: Modeling and Driving Waveform

by Xuan-Ha Nguyen, Tien-Hiep Mau, Ingo Meyer, Bao-Lam Dang and Hong-Phuc Pham

Coatings 2018, 8(2), 62; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings8020062 - 07 Feb 2018

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 6475

Abstract

Modeling and waveform optimization are important research topics for piezo-actuated stick–slip micro-drives. In this paper, the dynamics of piezo-actuated stick–slip micro-drives (PASSMDs) are theoretically investigated. We introduce an extended model taking the dynamics of the piezo actuators into account. The model combines the whole macroscopic movement of the drive’s runner and actuators and the microscopic behavior of the frictional contacts in a hybrid dynamic simulation. The macroscopic movements are described via Newtonian mechanics, while the microscopic behavior is computed using the method of dimensionality reduction. Two important characteristics of the drive, the critical actuation amplitude and the force generation, are systematically analyzed. The numerical simulation results show a fine agreement with experimental data of the previously published work. The critical actuation amplitude is found to depend on the behavior of the guiding contacts, the dynamics of the actuators and their interaction. Furthermore, a novel driving waveform, which allows us to increase the operational velocity for the drive, is proposed. The waveform is derived by exploiting micro-vibration and considering the dynamic contact status. Simulation results show that the average velocity of the drive is heightened by about