Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis research focuses on the characterization of thinfilms made of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) using an atomic force microscope. Thinfilms of PVDF were fabricated by a spin coating method with different conditions and characterized using the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) for morphological changes. Phase and conformational changes of PVDF were investigated using both wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). From this analysis, in-situ corona poling with annealing of spin-cast PVDF enabled a phase change from α to the mixture of β and γ phases. This process can decrease the complexity of the conventional method which requires mechanical stretching before poling PVDF in addition to thermal annealing for β phase transformation. This thesis describes some materials and surface properties of solution-cast PVDF thinfilms with various conditions such as topography and phase image, adhesion force, friction force, and roughness. Through the AFM topography and phase images, polymeric behavior and spherulites are discussed in the later part of the thesis.

Piezoelectric materials have been widely used in applications such as transducers, acoustic components, as well as motion and pressure sensors. Because of the material’s biocompatibility and flexibility, its applications in biomedical and biological systems have been of great scientific and engineering interest. In order to develop piezoelectric sensors that are small and functional, understanding of the material behavior is crucial. The major objective of this research is to develop a test system to evaluate the performance of a sensor made from polyvinylidene fluoride and its uses for studying insect locomotion and behaviors. A linear stage laboratory setup was designed and built to study the piezoelectric properties of a sensor during buckling deformation. The resulting signal was compared with the data obtained from sensors attached a cockroach, Blaberus discoidalis. Comparisons show that the buckling generated in laboratory settings can be used to mimic sensor deformations when attached to an insect. An analytical model was also developed to further analyze the test results. Initial analysis shows its potential usefulness in predicting the sensor charge output. Additional material surface characterization studies revealed relationships between microstructure properties and the piezoelectric response. This project shows feasibility of studying insects with the use of polyvinylidene fluoride sensors. The application of engineering materials to insect studies opens the door to innovative approaches to integrating biological, mechanical and electrical systems.

<p>To compare the use of a piezoelectric with a standard surgical handpiece in third molar surgery. Thirty patients requiring removal of third molars were included in the study. Panoramic radiographs were used to assess the third molars. The patients were randomly subdivided and the split-mouth technique applied. In split-mouth design, divisions of the mouth, such as right (upper and lower) and left (upper and lower) quadrants constitute the experimental units, which are randomly assigned to two treatment groups. Each patient serves as his or her own control, which increases statistical efficiency (Siddiqi et al. 2010). Each side was operated with either a piezoelectric or a conventional handpiece. All aspects of preoperative care, general anaesthesia, surgery and postoperative care were standardized for the groups.</p>

This thesis focuses on the electromechanical processes of generation and damping of transient waves in bars with attached piezoelectric members. In particular, the influence of amplifier and electrical circuitry on the mechanical waves is of interest. A straight bar element containing piezoelectric members is viewed as a linear system with one electrical and two mechanical ports where it interacts with external electrical and mechanical devices through voltage, current, forces and velocities. For the modelling of the piezoelectric bar element (PBE) and its environment, coupled piezoelectric theory is used with allowance for the dynamics of the PBE and attached electrical and mechanical devices. Two applications are considered for a PBE that constitutes a part of a long bar, viz. generation and damping of extensional waves. In the first, simulations and experiments were performed when the PBE was driven by a power amplifier. In the second, simulations and experiments were performed when the PBE supplied an output voltage to an external load. In the case of wave generation, the influence of amplifier characteristics in terms of DC voltage gain, 3 dB cut-off frequency, output impedance and current constraints on the output voltage and current of the amplifier and the waves generated are studied. Further, generation of waves of prescribed shapes are studied for a specific amplifier. In general, good agreement between simulated and experimental results was obtained. In the case of wave damping, the influence of external electrical loads and incident waveforms on reflected and transmitted waves, and on gener-ated voltage, current, electrical power and dissipated energy, are studied. In general, fair agreement between simulated and experimental results was obtained. The fractions of a few percent of wave energy dissipated in the exter-nal load were well below the 50 percent achievable for a harmonic wave under condition of electrical impedance matching.

In this study, a modified two-dimensional axisymmetric finite element model is used to analyze the deflections of the piezoelectric actuator of valveless micropump after being driven by applied voltage. And the volume change of the pump chamber caused by the deformation of the piezoelectric actuator is calculated. We expect these analyses will help the design of piezoelectric valveless micropump. This model is able to analyze the piezoelectric materials which can transform the mechanical energy to electric energy and vice versa by properly assuming the three displacement fields and including the electrical potential as the fourth degree of freedom. Comparisons of some examples are made between the present work and those available in the literature to validate the exactitude and the feasibility of the present work. Furthermore, the inspections of the variations of the deflections will be carried out by changing the geometrical dimensions of the piezoelectric actuators under the same driven voltage.

Wireless micro-sensors can enjoy popularity in biomedical drug-delivery treatments and tire-pressure monitoring systems because they offer in-situ, real-time, non-intrusive processing capabilities. However, miniaturized platforms severely limit the energy of onboard batteries and shorten the lifespan of electronic systems. Ambient energy is an attractive alternative because the energy from light, heat, radio-frequency (RF) radiation, and motion can potentially be used to continuously replenish an exhaustible reservoir. Of these sources, solar light produces the highest power density, except when supplied from indoor lighting, under which conditions the available power decreases drastically. Harnessing thermal energy is viable, but micro-scale dimensions severely limit temperature gradients, the fundamental mechanism from which thermo piles draw power. Mobile electronic devices today radiate plenty of RF energy, but still, the available power rapidly drops with distance. Harvesting kinetic energy may not compete with solar power, but in contrast to indoor lighting, thermal, and RF sources, moderate and consistent vibration power across a vast range of applications is typical. Although operating conditions ultimately determine which kinetic energy-harvesting method is optimal, piezoelectric transducers are relatively mature and produce comparatively more power than their counterparts such as electrostatic and electromagnetic kinetic energy transducers. The presented research objective is to develop, design, simulate, fabricate, prototype, test, and evaluate CMOS ICs that harvest ambient kinetic energy in periodic and non-periodic vibrations using a small piezoelectric transducer to continually replenish an energy-storage device like a capacitor or a rechargeable battery. Although vibrations in surrounding environment produce abundant energy over time, tiny transducers can harness only limited power from the energy sources, especially when mechanical stimulation is weak. To overcome this challenge, the presented piezoelectric harvesters eliminate the need for a rectifier which necessarily imposes threshold limits and additional losses in the system. More fundamentally, the presented harvesting circuits condition the transducer to convert more electrical energy for a given mechanical input by increasing the electromechanical damping force of the piezoelectric transducer. The overall aim is to acquire more power by widening the input range and improving the efficiency of the IC as well as the transducer. The presented technique in essence augments the energy density of micro-scale electronic systems by scavenging the ambient kinetic energy and extends their operational lifetime. This dissertation reports the findings acquired throughout the investigation. The first chapter introduces the applications and challenges of micro-scale energy harvesting and also reviews the fundamental mechanisms and recent developments of various energy-converting transducers that can harness ambient energy in light, heat, RF radiation, and vibrations. Chapter 2 examines various existing piezoelectric harvesting circuits, which mostly adopt bridge rectifiers as their core. Chapter 3 then introduces a bridge-free piezoelectric harvester circuit that employs a switched-inductor power stage to eliminate the need for a bridge rectifier and its drawbacks. More importantly, the harvester strengthens the electrical damping force of the piezoelectric device and increases the output power of the harvester. The chapter also presents the details of the integrated-circuit (IC) implementation and the experimental results of the prototyped harvester to corroborate and clarify the bridge-free harvester operation. One of the major discoveries from the first harvester prototype is the fact that the harvester circuit can condition the piezoelectric transducer to strengthen its electrical damping force and increase the output power of the harvester. As such, Chapter 4 discusses various energy-investment strategies that increase the electrical damping force of the transducer. The chapter presents, evaluates, and compares several switched-inductor harvester circuits against each other. Based on the investigation in Chapter 4, an energy-investing piezoelectric harvester was designed and experimentally evaluated to confirm the effectiveness of the investing scheme. Chapter 5 explains the details of the IC design and the measurement results of the prototyped energy-investing piezoelectric harvester. Finally, Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation by revisiting the challenges of miniaturized piezoelectric energy harvesters and by summarizing the fundamental contributions of the research. With the same importance as with the achievements of the investigation, the last chapter lists the technological limits that bound the performance of the proposed harvesters and briefly presents perspectives from the other side of the research boundary for future investigations of micro-scale piezoelectric energy harvesting.

The work detailed here is the development of simulations and fabrication techniques used for the construction of thin-film acoustic transducers for use in the parametric pumping of spin waves. The Mason Model, a 1-D equivalent circuit simulating the responses of multilayer acoustic transducers, is implemented using ABCD-parameters in MATLAB to determine the expected response from fabricated devices. The simulation is tested by varying device parameters and comparing the changes in device resonance response to those of prior published results. Three-layer thin-film acoustic transducers were also fabricated. These transducers use zinc oxide (ZnO) as a piezoelectric layer with aluminum (Al) electrodes. Construction is accomplished using the common thin-film fabrication techniques of sputtering, thermal evaporation, etching, and lift-off patterning processes. The response of the fabricated transducers is compared to that of the simulated response by observing the transducer's resonance frequency and characteristics. These results are used to validate the simulation and the transducer fabrication process. Finally, their usefulness for the design and fabrication of an acoustic spin wave amplification system is considered. / Graduation date: 2013

Manufacturers face the challenge of enhancing fuel efficiency, engine performance, and reducing harmful emissions. Novel fuel injection technologies can assist in meeting such demands. This dissertation summarizes the stages in the design, prototyping and experimental analysis of a direct-acting piezoelectric fuel injector concept. In the proposed design, a piezoelectric stack actuator is used to directly control the injection of fuel in order to enhance the injection characteristics by utilizing the fast response time of the actuator. The direct-acting concept was implemented by developing a motion inverter in the form of a disc that reverses the direction of the input and allows the actuator to directly control injections. Tests with input signals similar to those used in diesel engines confirmed the theoretical calculations and verified the prototype’s performance. This design can control the quantity of injected fuel more precisely than currently available commercial injectors.

This study presents a high-performance ZnO piezoelectric transducer integrated with the flexible stainless steel substrate. The ZnO piezoelectric film of 1.08nm was deposited on the flexible stainless steel substrate using a RF magnetron sputtering system. The cantilever length of 1cm and the vibration area of 1cm2 were designed for low-frequency environment according to the Cantilever Vibration Theory. The effects of various sputtering parameters such as substrate temperature, RF power and sputtering pressure were investigated to improve the piezoelectric characteristics of ZnO thin films. It was also discussed the unit thickness of open voltage values, and then the optimal sputtering parameters were determined. The physical characteristics of ZnO thin films were obtained by the analyses of the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to discuss the surfaces, cross section and crystallization of ZnO thin films. The voltage analysis were measured the open and load voltage by the measurement system. The optimal deposition parameters for ZnO thin films are substrate temperature of 300¢J, RF power of 75W, sputtering pressure of 9 mTorr and oxygen concentration of 60%, which were determined by physical characteristics and voltage analysis. The study employs a precise mass loading of 0.57g on the cantilever to increase the vibration amplitude. The vibration source from 1~150Hz was provided to the piezoelectric transducer, and then the experimental results were showed resonance frequency of 75Hz by oscilloscope. When the optimal thickness of ZnO films is 1.08£gm and vibration amplitude is 1.19mm, the open circuit voltage of the power generator is 5.25V.After rectifying and flitting with a capacitor of 33nF,the maximum power of 1.0£gW/cm2 was achieved with the load resistance of 5M£[.