Air-Coupled Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers

Characterize air-coupled aluminum nitride piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducers (pMUTs) for use in range finding and gesture recognition applications. MEMS Aluminum Nitride (AlN) piezoelectric sensor technology has been chosen due to the relatively simple deposition process and compatibility with CMOS technology which enables the potential integration of the sensor and drive electronics on the same chip. Guided by both analytic and finite element models the optimum design parameters are chosen to obtain the desired resonant frequency, bandwidth, and maximum output sound pressure for the transmitter, and maximum sensitivity for the receiver. We are currently exploring several conceptual designs, using different fabrication processes, to improve robustness while maintaining the performance.

Researchers

  • Scott Block

Publications

  • Rozen, O., Shelton S.E., Guedes A., and Horsley D.A., “Variable Thickness Diaphragm for a Stress Insensitive Wideband Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer”, Hilton Head 2014 Solid-State Sensors, Actuators & Microsystems Workshop, Hilton Head Island
  • Shelton S.E.,Rozen, O., Guedes A., Przybyla, R., Boser, B., Horsley, D. A., “Improved acoustic coupling of air-coupled micromachined ultrasonic transducers”, Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2014 IEEE 27th International Conference
    doi: 10.1109/MEMSYS.2014.6765750
  • Guedes, A; Shelton, S.; Przybyla, R.; Izyumin, I; Boser, B.; Horsley, D.A, “Aluminum nitride pMUT based on a flexurally-suspended membrane,” Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International , vol., no., pp.2062,2065, 5-9 June 2011
    doi: 10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2011.5969223
  • Shelton, S.; Mei-Lin Chan; Hyunkyu Park; Horsley, D.; Boser, B.; Izyumin, I; Przybyla, R.; Frey, T.; Judy, M.; Nunan, K.; Sammoura, F.; Yang, K., “CMOS-compatible AlN piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers,” Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), 2009 IEEE International , vol., no., pp.402,405, 20-23 Sept. 2009
    doi: 10.1109/ULTSYM.2009.5441602

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