After Uchino’s introduction of a new terminology, ‘Micromechatronics’ in 1979 for describing the application area of ‘piezoelectric actuators’, the rapid advances in semiconductor chip technology have led to a new terminology MEMS(micro-electro-mechanical-system) or even NEMS (nano-electro-mechanicalsystem) to describe mainly thin film sensor/actuator devices, a narrower area of micromechatronics coverage. New technologies, product developments and commercialization are providing the necessity of this major revision. In particular, the progresses in high power transducers, loss mechanisms in smart materials, energy harvesting and computer simulations are significant. New technologies, product developments and commercialization are providingthe updating requirement for the book contents, in parallel to the deletion of oldcontents.Various educational/instructional example problems have been accumulated, which were integrated in the new edition in order to facilitate the self-learning for the students, and the quiz/problem creation for theinstructors.Heavily revised topics from the previous edition include: high power transducers, loss mechanisms in smartmaterials, energy harvesting and computer simulations New technologies, product developments and commercialization helped shape the updated contents of this book where all chapters have been updated and revised.This textbook is intended for graduate students and industrial engineers studying orworking in the fields of electronic materials, control system engineering, opticalcommunications, precision machinery, and robotics. The text is designed primarilyfor a graduate course with the equivalent of thirty 75-minute lectures; however, it isalso suitable for self-study by individuals wishing to extend their knowledge in thefield.
