A new sensing mechanism based on mode localization phenomenon has been applied to various resonant sensors in recent years, which shows high sensitivity and good robustness, and is compatible with the Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) fabrication technology. In this paper, the influence of fabrication tolerance on the sensitivity of the four degree of freedom (DoF) weakly coupled resonators (WCRs) with two types of coupling beam was simulated by the finite element software COMSOL. The simulation results show that the sensitivity of WCRs changed with the change of coupling beam width and the sensitivity of the WCRs with “E” coupling beam is less affected compared with the WCRs with “bridge” coupling beam. WCRs with two types of coupling beam are measured under open-loop circumstance and the experiment results show that the sensitivity difference between the designed value and measured value is smaller for the WCRs with “E” coupling beam which verified that the WCRs with “E” coupling beam is less affected by the fabrication tolerance.

This paper reports a comparative study of anatase- and rutile-TiO₂ thin films on TiO₂/Se hetero junction photovoltaic cells. Anatase- and rutile-TiO₂ thin films were deposited by intentional control of sputtering pressure and substrate temperature in reactive sputtering process. Se photovoltaic devices with rutile-TiO₂ thin films exhibited higher short circuit current densities and photovoltaic conversion efficiencies than those of devices with anatase TiO₂ layers. This result would attribute to suitable band alignment between rutile-TiO₂ and Se layers. Conduction band alignment between Se and TiO₂ layers is also discussed in connection with the measured optical bandgap energies and ionization energies.

In this work, oxidative decomposition reaction of organic reactant on TiO₂ surface was investigated under soaking conditions by combination of applying voltages and light illumination. Since carriers of TiO₂ thin films originate from point defects such as oxygen vacancies, reactive carriers possibly exist on TiO₂ thin films even under room light illuminating condition and dark condition. Thus, enhancement degrees of photooxidation by applying bias voltages onto TiO₂ thin films were compared under dark, visible light illumination and UV illumination conditions. Bias voltages were applied to localize the photogenerated carriers at the vicinity of TiO₂ surface for enhancing photooxidation. Sol-gel derived TiO₂ thin films with porous nano structure exhibited a stronger oxidative decomposition reaction than sputter-deposited TiO₂ thin films.

Mechanical behavior of micro-scale normal shock and shock train were observed to demonstrate its usefulness for compression process of a micro-scale radial wave rotor. The micro-scale radial wave-rotor consists of multi-rotational cells. The mechanism of compression by shock wave is a key issue of increasing the internal pressure of the cells required for the turbo-compression of MEMS turbomachines. However, the mechanical behavior of the shock wave used for the MEMS turbo-compression has not been investigated in micro-scale domain. Therefore, we demonstrate the shock wave formation by using a micro-scale supersonic wind tunnel to verify the conceptual design of the micro-scale radial wave-rotor. It was found that compression process due to the shock train may be generated in the micro-scale straight duct. However, its static pressure recovery is much smaller than that of the isolated normal shock.

We have developed a MEMS Rogowski coil current sensor with spiral return coil. The Rogowski coil is formed on a silicon substrate clockwise and counterclockwise from the edges, for current detection and external magnetic noise compensation (device size 10×10×0.3 mm³, spiral coil 135 turns, via diameter 100 µm).

When the slew rate (di/dt) was kept constant at 10 A/µs, and the current was changed by 5 A up to 40 A, MEMS Rogowski coil could detect current linearly. When the slew rate was changed by 10 A/µs up to 100 A/µs, it was found that the MEMS Rogowski coil could detect current almost linearly following the reference sensor. Hence, external noise compensation by the return coil has been confirmed.

This paper addresses the chiral structures of triglycine sulfate (TGS) crystals resulting from doping it with alanine. The alanine-doped TGS (ATGS) crystals were grown in an aqueous solution by the slow evaporation method at 293 K. The doping ratios of alanine in these crystals were calculated using intensity data of circular dichroism measurements and the ferroelectric domains were precisely investigated by the decoration method with positively charged carbon powder. Single-domain state was observed when the doping ratio was over 0.5 mol%. It was discussed that the chiral preference in ATGS crystals was attributed to the internal bias electric field generated by doping it with alanine.