Kenji Uchino | |
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Born | 内野研二 April 3, 1950 Tokyo, Japan |
Nationality | American |
Awards | Adaptive Structures Prize, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2005) UFFC Ferroelectrics Recognition Award, IEEE (2013) International Ceramic Award, Global Academy of Ceramics (2016) Distinguished Lecturer, The IEEE UFFC Society (2018) |
Academic background | |
Education | B.Sc., Physics M.S., Physical Electronics Ph.D., Physical Electronics MBA, Business Administration |
Alma mater | Tokyo Institute of Technology Saint Francis University |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Pennsylvania State University |
Kenji Uchino is an American electronics engineer,physicist,academic,inventor and industry executive. He is currently a professor of Electrical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University,where he also directs the International Center for Actuators and Transducers at Materials Research Institute. [1] He is the former associate director (US Navy Ambassador to Japan) at The US Office of Naval Research –Global Tokyo Office. [2]
Uchino has conducted extensive research on solid state physics,focusing especially on ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics. [3] He is one of the pioneers in piezoelectric actuators and electro-optic displays and is the inventor of topics including lead magnesium niobate (PMN)-based electrostricive materials,cofired multilayer piezoelectric actuators,superior electromechanical coupling relaxor-PbTiO_3 single crystals,magnetoelectric laminated composite sensors,shape memory ceramics,and micro ultrasonic motors. [4] Uchino's work has resulted in over 584 research papers,over 78 books and 33 patents in the ceramic actuator area. [5]
Uchino is a Fellow of IEEE [6] and American Ceramic Society and a senior member of National Academy of Inventors. [7] He chaired the Smart Actuators/Sensors Study Committee in Japan from 1987 till 2014. Uchino is the Editor in Chief of Insight-Material Science and the Associate Editor in Chief of Actuators. [8]
Uchino was born in Tokyo in 1950,and grew up in Hiroshima. [9] He studied at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan and completed his B.Sc. degree in physics in 1973. He then received his M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Physical Electronics in 1975 and 1981,respectively. He was awarded his MBA degree from Saint Francis University in 2008. [1]
Uchino taught as an assistant professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology and the Pennsylvania State University from 1976 till 1985 before joining Sophia University in Japan as an associate professor of physics. In 1991,he was appointed by the Pennsylvania State University as Professor at Electrical Engineering and Materials Research Institute. Uchino was appointed as Founding Director of International Center for Actuators and Transducers in 1992. He served as a distinguished honors faculty at Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University from 2018 till 2020. [10]
Uchino was appointed as a Standing Auditor of Tokyo Savor Electronics Co. in the 1990s. He has also served as deputy director of System Technology Laboratory at NF Corporation in Japan. [1] He was also the Founder and Senior Vice President &CTO of Micromechatronics Inc.,State College. [2]
From 2010 till 2014,he served as an associate director of Asia Office at Office of Naval Research-Global in Japan. [1]
Uchino is one of the pioneers in piezoelectric actuators and electro-optic display. He has conducted research on solid state physics,focusing especially on ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics,as well as on application development of solid state actuators for precision positioners,ultrasonic motors,smart structures,piezoelectric transformers and energy harvesting.
Uchino,along with his team,was the first to discover the giant electro-strictive effect in lead magnesium niobate based relaxor ferroelectric materials. His discovery led to the 'smart actuator' boom. [11] He has also contributed significantly to the single crystal growth of piezoelectric transducer materials,and is one of the discoverers of the highest electromechanical coupling factor of 95% in lead zinc niobate - lead titanate single crystals. [12]
Uchino reported the existence of the critical particle size below which all ferroelectric ceramics will lose ferro-electricity. His work led to triggering of later micro/nanotechnology research in the ferroelectric field,specifically in thin film applications. [13]
Uchino contributed to the fundamental phenomenology in relaxor ferroelectrics and proposed a modified Curie-Weiss Law in the early 1980s. [14]
Uchino discovered 'photostrictive effect' [15] and by combining the photovoltaic effect and piezoelectricity,he invented photo-driven actuators. He investigated the basic ceramic compositions in La-doped lead zirconate titanate (PLZT). [16]
Uchino has also worked on high power density piezo-ceramics,and developed a new methodology on measuring three losses separately in piezoelectrics. [17] He also developed practical high power piezo-materials with the maximum vibration velocity. [18]
Uchino proposed the basic idea of co-fired multilayer actuators in late 1970s which led to the mass-production of piezoelectric multilayer actuators by NEC Corporation. He is also the inventor of Cymbal actuators [19] that consist of a thin multilayer piezoelectric element and two metal end caps with narrow cymbal-shaped cavities bonded together. [20]
In collaboration with Denso Corporation in Japan,Uchino worked on piezoelectric energy harvesting with cymbal transducers from the engine vibration in a car. [21] His work was recognized with an Inventor Award from Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems.
Uchino has also worked on compact ultrasonic motors with the minimum components. His original design consisted of only two basic components,and guaranteed reduction of manufacturing cost and improvement of production efficiency and reliability. [22] He combined magnetostrictor and piezoelectric materials and is one of the pioneers in magnetoelectric devices. [23]
Uchino reported the analysis of transient vibration generated by a piezoelectric actuator after applying a pulse voltage. [24] He proposed the idea of health monitoring of piezoelectric actuators by using AE monitoring and/or strain gauge type internal electrodes. He based his idea on the crack propagation mechanisms in multilayer piezo-actuators. [25]
Uchino designed Buck-Converters for resolving the issue of energy harvesting circuit for realizing piezoelectric energy harvesting systems. [26]
Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The word piezoelectricity means electricity resulting from pressure and latent heat. It is derived from Ancient Greek πιέζω (piézō) 'to squeeze or press', and ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron) 'amber'. The German form of the word (Piezoelektricität) was coined in 1881 by the German physicist Wilhelm Gottlieb Hankel; the English word was coined in 1883.
Ferroelectricity is a characteristic of certain materials that have a spontaneous electric polarization that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field. All ferroelectrics are also piezoelectric and pyroelectric, with the additional property that their natural electrical polarization is reversible. The term is used in analogy to ferromagnetism, in which a material exhibits a permanent magnetic moment. Ferromagnetism was already known when ferroelectricity was discovered in 1920 in Rochelle salt by Joseph Valasek. Thus, the prefix ferro, meaning iron, was used to describe the property despite the fact that most ferroelectric materials do not contain iron. Materials that are both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic are known as multiferroics.
Lead zirconate titanate, also called lead zirconium titanate and commonly abbreviated as PZT, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Pb[ZrxTi1−x]O3(0 ≤ x ≤ 1).. It is a ceramic perovskite material that shows a marked piezoelectric effect, meaning that the compound changes shape when an electric field is applied. It is used in a number of practical applications such as ultrasonic transducers and piezoelectric resonators. It is a white to off-white solid.
In electromagnetism, electrostriction is a property of all electrical non-conductors, or dielectrics, that causes them to change their shape under the application of an electric field. It is the dual property to magnetostriction.
A piezoelectric motor or piezo motor is a type of electric motor based on the change in shape of a piezoelectric material when an electric field is applied, as a consequence of the converse piezoelectric effect. An electrical circuit makes acoustic or ultrasonic vibrations in the piezoelectric material, most often lead zirconate titanate and occasionally lithium niobate or other single-crystal materials, which can produce linear or rotary motion depending on their mechanism. Examples of types of piezoelectric motors include inchworm motors, stepper and slip-stick motors as well as ultrasonic motors which can be further categorized into standing wave and travelling wave motors. Piezoelectric motors typically use a cyclic stepping motion, which allows the oscillation of the crystals to produce an arbitrarily large motion, as opposed to most other piezoelectric actuators where the range of motion is limited by the static strain that may be induced in the piezoelectric element.
An ultrasonic motor is a type of piezoelectric motor powered by the ultrasonic vibration of a component, the stator, placed against another component, the rotor or slider depending on the scheme of operation. Ultrasonic motors differ from other piezoelectric motors in several ways, though both typically use some form of piezoelectric material, most often lead zirconate titanate and occasionally lithium niobate or other single-crystal materials. The most obvious difference is the use of resonance to amplify the vibration of the stator in contact with the rotor in ultrasonic motors. Ultrasonic motors also offer arbitrarily large rotation or sliding distances, while piezoelectric actuators are limited by the static strain that may be induced in the piezoelectric element.
Barium titanate (BTO) is an inorganic compound with chemical formula BaTiO3. Barium titanate appears white as a powder and is transparent when prepared as large crystals. It is a ferroelectric, pyroelectric, and piezoelectric ceramic material that exhibits the photorefractive effect. It is used in capacitors, electromechanical transducers and nonlinear optics.
A thin-film bulk acoustic resonator is a device consisting of a piezoelectric material manufactured by thin film methods between two conductive – typically metallic – electrodes and acoustically isolated from the surrounding medium. The operation is based on the piezoelectricity of the piezolayer between the electrodes.
Walter Guyton Cady was a noted American physicist and electrical engineer. He was a pioneer in piezoelectricity, and in 1921 developed the first quartz crystal oscillator.
Ferroelectric polymers are a group of crystalline polar polymers that are also ferroelectric, meaning that they maintain a permanent electric polarization that can be reversed, or switched, in an external electric field.
Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUT) are MEMS-based piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers. Unlike bulk piezoelectric transducers which use the thickness-mode motion of a plate of piezoelectric ceramic such as PZT or single-crystal PMN-PT, PMUT are based on the flexural motion of a thin membrane coupled with a thin piezoelectric film, such as PVDF.
Gordon Eugene Martin is an American physicist and author in the field of piezoelectric materials for underwater sound transducers. He wrote early computer software automating iterative evaluation of direct computer models through a Jacobian matrix of complex numbers. His software enabled the Navy Electronics Laboratory (NEL) to accelerate design of sonar arrays for tracking Soviet Navy submarines during the Cold War.
A complex oxide is a chemical compound that contains oxygen and at least two other elements. Complex oxide materials are notable for their wide range of magnetic and electronic properties, such as ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity, and high-temperature superconductivity. These properties often come from their strongly correlated electrons in d or f orbitals.
Sodium bismuth titanate or bismuth sodium titanium oxide (NBT or BNT) is a solid inorganic compound of sodium, bismuth, titanium and oxygen with the chemical formula of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 or Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3. This compound adopts the perovskite structure.
Alper Erturk is a mechanical engineer and the Woodruff Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Warren Perry Mason was an American electrical engineer and physicist at Bell Labs. A graduate of Columbia University, he had a prolific output, publishing four books and nearly a hundred papers. He was issued over two hundred patents, more than anyone else at Bell Labs. His work included acoustics, filters, crystals and ceramics, materials science, polymer chemistry, ultrasonics, bonding to semiconductors, internal friction, and viscoelasticity.
Susan Trolier-McKinstry is an American materials scientist. She is the Steward S. Flaschen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Electrical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, Director of the W. M. Keck Smart Materials Integration Laboratory, and co-director of the Nanofabrication facility.
Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb is a mechanical engineer in the field of micro and nano engineering and mechanics of materials. She is the Harris Saunders, Jr. Chair and Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Bassiri-Gharb leads the Smart Materials, Advanced Research and Technology (SMART) Laboratory at Georgia Tech. Her research seeks to characterize and optimize the optical and electric response of interferometric modulator (IMOD) displays. She also investigates novel materials to improve reliability and processing of IMOD.
Dragan Damjanovic is a Swiss-Bosnian-Herzegovinian materials scientist. From 2008 to 2022, he was a professor of material sciences at EPFL and head of the Group for Ferroelectrics and Functional Oxides.