The giant magneto-strain effect in Ni-Mn-Ga alloys is particularly attractive for actuator applications. Two different approaches are being pursued to develop MSM microactuators. To observe large deflections of Ni-Mn-Ga microactuators, the material should be exhibiting low twinning stress and large magnetic anisotropy. In addition, design rules and boundary conditions for operating the Ni-Mn-Ga actuator material are having significant importance for evolution of performance characteristics.

The giant magneto-strain effect in Ni-Mn-Ga alloys is particularly attractive for actuator applications. Two different approaches are being pursued to develop MSM microactuators. To observe large deflections of Ni-Mn-Ga microactuators, the material should be exhibiting low twinning stress and large magnetic anisotropy. In addition, design rules and boundary conditions for operating the Ni-Mn-Ga actuator material are having significant importance for evolution of performance characteristics. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

Overview of recent achievements, describing the microactuator development of microvalves and liner actuators comprehensively from concept through prototype. Further key aspects included are three-dimensional models for handling complex SMA actuator geometries and coupled simulation routines that take multifunctional properties into account. Mechanical and thermal optimization criteria are introduced for actuator design, allowing an optimum use of the shape memory effect. It is shown that some of the prototypes presented, e.g. SMA microgrippers, already outperform conventional components.

Elastocaloric cooling is an emerging solid-state cooling technology with the potential to provide environmentally friendly, efficient cooling. The elastocaloric effect in superelastic shape memory alloy films is used to develop advanced cooling devices for small-scale applications. Cascaded and parallelized devices are developed to increase device temperature span and cooling capacity. The concepts are proven experimentally, a maximum temperature span of 27° C is achieved in a cascaded device.

This book offers an extensive, interdisciplinary overview of dynamic textiles. Specifically, it discusses new findings and design concepts concerning the integration of smart materials into textile substrates and their corresponding dynamic behavior. Introducing the topic of dynamic color in textiles, it presents experimental procedures to achieve color change and dynamic light transmittance in thermochromic textiles, and examines their thermoresponsive behavior and respective electrical activation. Moreover, it also addresses the topic of dynamic form and reports on the authors’ original findings using shape-memory alloys and geometric morphologies based on origami techniques. Covering innovative smart textiles and important considerations in terms of design variables when developing textiles with dynamic qualities, and providing extensive, practice-oriented insights into the interaction of textiles with light, it is primarily intended for academics, researchers and practitioners developing smart, dynamic and interactive textiles. The sections describing in detail the experimental work aimed at the integration of smart materials in textile substrates also appeal to professionals in the textile industry.

In this work, a flexible biosensor platform based on impedance spectroscopy and comprising of gold electrodes, polymeric flow cells and a suitable surface modification were developed. Initially, several surface modification techniques described in literature were implemented and optimized for impedimetric biosensors but their individual limitations rendered them unsuitable for this biosensor platform. A novel method based on photobleaching was developed and tested showing satisfactory results.

A new immobilization method for the localized adsorption of proteins on thermoplastic surfaces is introduced. Artificial three-phase interfaces were realized by surface structuring to control the wetting behavior which lead to a preferred adsorption in these modified areas. Additionally, different fabrication methods were analyzed to determine mass fabrication capabilities. These fabrication methods also allowed the production of fully structured microchannels to tune the fluids behavior within.