Editorial for the Special Issue on Piezoelectric Transducers: Materials, Devices and Applications, Volume II

This is the second volume of the Special Issue focused on piezoelectric transducers, covering a wide range of topics, including the design, fabrication, characterization, packaging, and system integration or final applications of mili/micro/nano-electro–mechanical systems-based transducers, featuring piezoelectric materials and devices. This new volume has compiled a total of 14 papers, with the latest advances in areas such as hysteresis compensation [1,2,3], cylindrical piezoelectric transducers [4], flextensional devices for underwater applications [5], electromechanical transformers [6], actuators for image stabilization [7], electric current sensing [8], rotary and linear ultrasonic motors [9,10], locomotion of miniature robots [11], displacement amplification structures [12] nanoparticles with piezoelectric properties [13], and a review paper on aerospace applications [14].

The works published in this issue reflect the advances in the miniaturization of sensors, actuators, and smart systems that are receiving substantial industrial attention, with a wide variety of transducers commercially available or with high potential to impact emerging markets. Substituting existing products based on bulk materials in fields such as automotive, environment, food, robotics, medicine, biotechnology, communications, internet of things, and related technologies, with reduced size, lower cost, and higher performance, is now possible, with potential for manufacturing using advanced silicon integrated circuits technology or alternative additive techniques from the mili- to the micro-scale.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the authors for submitting their papers to this Special Issue. I also want to thank all the reviewers for their effort and time in assisting with improving the quality of the submitted papers.

In view of the success reached in the number and quality of papers published, we plan to open a third Volume where we hope to continue with the latest advances in piezoelectric transducers and their trend toward miniaturization, efficiency, and new applications.