Technical systems

The focus of this topic is materials research in view of certain technical applications. For example, digitalization causes increased demands for actuation and sensing, i.e. the capability to transform electrical signals into, say, mechanical quantities and vice versa. Here, piezoelectric materials play an important role. Besides optimizing the established lead based materials, lead free materials are to be looked for as replacements. As another example, printing of devices becomes more and more important. Processing aspects, mechanical reliability of printed devices in general and, in particular of flexible substrates, becomes an essential issue. New nanostructured functional and protective coatings are needed for applications in microsystems technology, nanotechnology and tribology. The interaction of metallic and ceramic materials with aqueous, gaseous, or liquid metal environment, including the development of suitable protective layers, is important in view of corrosion.

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Bending setup for fatigue testing of printed electronics on flexible substrates