Fully implantable, self-powered hearing aids with no external unit could significantly increase the life quality of patients suffering severe hearing loss. This highly demanding concept, however, requires a strongly miniaturized device which is fully implantable in the middle/inner ear and includes the following components: frequency selective microphone or accelerometer, energy harvesting device, speech processor, and cochlear multielectrode. Here we demonstrate a low volume, piezoelectric micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) cantilever array which is sensitive, even in the lower part of the voice frequency range (300–700 Hz). The test array consisting of 16 cantilevers has been fabricated by standard bulk micromachining using a Si-on-Insulator (SOI) wafer and aluminum nitride (AlN) as a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and biocompatible piezoelectric material. The low frequency and low device footprint are ensured by Archimedean spiral geometry and Si seismic mass. Experimentally detected resonance frequencies were validated by an analytical model. The generated open circuit voltage (3–10 mV) is sufficient for the direct analog conversion of the signals for cochlear multielectrode implants.

Intelligent tires can be used for a wide array of applications ranging from tire pressure monitoring to analyzing tire/road interactions, wheel loading, and tread wear monitoring. In this article, we develop a measurement system for intelligent tires equipped with a 3-D piezoresistive force sensor. The output of the sensor is segmented into tire revolution cycles, which are then represented by a transformation relying on adaptive Hermite functions. The underlying idea behind this step is to extract relevant features which capture tire dynamics. Then we evaluate the proposed measurement system in a potential vehicle application, that is, abnormal road surface detection. We deal with the corresponding binary classification problem by developing both low-complexity analytical and data-driven machine learning algorithms, which are tested on real-world measurement data. Our experiments showed that the proposed methods are able to detect abnormalities on the road surface with a mean accuracy of over 97%.

Smart tire technologies offer a novel sensing methodology for vehicle environment perception by providing direct measurements of tire dynamics parameters. This information can be utilized in advanced driver assistance systems as well as autonomous vehicle control to enhance vehicle performance and safety. Considering these criteria, we develop algorithms for categorizing road types based on tire sensor signals. Road differentiation is a complex task due to the non-linear and non-stationary nature of the measured tire signals. To address this challenge, we fuse time-frequency distributions with machine learning approaches. Maintaining the robustness of the predictions, we integrate our own measurement system into a Nissan Leaf test vehicle and collect data involving diverse environmental factors and operational conditions, mimicking real-world scenarios. We showed that by experiments our predictions strongly correlate with road quality, which can be utilized in automatic vehicle control, such as intelligent speed adaptation.

This report is on experiments and theory on the process of optically stimulated electron population density redistribution in Si-substituted yttrium-iron garnet single crystals at 77 K. It was determined that a photo-induced uniaxial anisotropy field arose in the YIG:Si sample in response to illumination by quasi-linearly polarized laser (λ = 808 nm) leading to redistribution of Fe2+ ions among the nonequivalent octahedral sites. The photo-induced field was measured by variation of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) frequencies in the X-band. The measured FMR frequency shift demonstrated a pronounced dependence on the polarization vector orientation with respect to crystallographic axes, in accordance with the theory discussed here. The frequency shift dependence on light intensity (for optimal polarization orientation) was found to be nearly linear, at least within the output intensity range of the optical source. The maximum frequency shift was −130 MHz for 75 mW applied optical power. A similar phenomenon was also observed at room temperature but was attributed to the sample heating by the incident light. The results presented here demonstrate the potential of the phenomenon for application in the development of ferrite signal processing devices with dual tuning by both magnetic field and optical irradiation.

Smart laparoscope device was developed and integrated into the ROBIN HEART surgery robot system. Miniaturised silicon based force sensors were developed and integrated into laparoscope tweezers for the special applications. Different sensors were applied to detect tactile information at the tip of the laparoscope and to measure the clamping force between the tweezers. Preliminary tests were accomplished to evaluate the force and tactile signals of the integrated sensors during interventions. Tactile measurements were implemented on artificial and real animal tissues to prove the applicability of the device for biomechanical screening during Minimal Invasive Surgery.