The growing demand for thinner, lighter, and more energy-efficient electronic systems has driven the development of acoustic technologies toward compact and flexible sound generation platforms. Despite significant progress, conventional electromagnetic speakers remain limited by bulky structures, energy losses, and poor compatibility with modern ultrathin devices. In this review, recent advancements in piezoelectric acoustic systems are presented, demonstrating a new generation of speakers capable of producing high-fidelity sound from ultra-slim, lightweight, and mechanically compliant designs. Through refined structural configurations and efficient electromechanical coupling, these piezoelectric exciters achieve strong acoustic output, fast response, and wide frequency operation while drastically reducing component thickness. These exciters also show their suitability for seamless integration into flexible displays, wearable devices, and automotive panels, offering enhanced spatial audio practicality and multifunctional operation, including demonstrative output and sensing. This advancement marks a step toward the convergence of acoustic, haptic, and interactive technologies, for the realization of sustainable and immersive humanmachine interfaces in future electronic and automotive systems.
Hyeon Yeong Lee, Kwangwon Kim, Jiwon Ye, Suhyeon Woo, Geon Lee, Seungah Lee, Seong Rok Jeong, Seon Hye Jeong, Ho Seong Kim, Ga Hyeon Nam, Yun Yeong Jo, Han Seung Choi, Jungho Ryu
J Electr Electron Mater 2021;34(6):495-504. Published online November 1, 2021
Energy Harvesting is a technology that can convert wasted energy such as vibration, heat, light, electromagnetic energy, etc. into usable electrical energy. Among them, vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) has high energy conversion efficiency with a small volume; thus, it is expected to be used in various autonomous powering devices, such as implantable medical devices, wearable devices, and energy harvesting from road or automobiles. In this study, wasted vibration energy in an automobile is converted into electrical energy by high-power piezoelectric materials, and the generated electrical energy is found to be an auxiliary power source for the operation of wireless sensor nodes, LEDs, etc. inside an automobile. In order to properly install the PEH in an automobile, vibration characteristics includes frequency and amplitude at several positions in the automobile is monitored initially and the cantilever structured PEH was designed accordingly. The harvesting properties of fabricated PEH is characterized and installed into the engine part of the automobile, where the vibration amplitude is stable and strong. The feasibility of PEH is confirmed by operating electric components (LEDs) that can be used in practice.
Red phosphor in glasses (PiGs) for automotive light-emitting diode (LED) applications were fabricated with 620-nm CaAlSiN3:Eu2+ phosphor and Pb-free silicate glass. PiGs were synthesized and mounted on high-power blue LED to make a monochromatic red LED. PiGs were simple mixtures of red phosphor and transparent glass powder. After being fabricated with uniaxial press and CIP at 300 MPa for 20 min, the green bodies were thermally treated at 550℃ for 30 min to produce high dense PiGs. As the phosphor content increased, the density of the sintered body decreased and PiGs containing 30% phosphor had a full sintered density. Changes in photoluminescence spectra and color coordination were studied by varying the thickness of plates that were mounted after optical polishing. As a result of the optical spectrum and color coordinates, PiG plate with 210 μm thickness showed a color purity of 99.7%. In order to evaluate the thermal stability, the thermal quenching characteristics were measured at temperatures of 30~150℃. The results showed that the red PIG plates were 30% more thermally stable compared to the AlGaInP red chip.