Ultrasound transducer for automotive applications

With cars offereing more and more functionalities, ultrasonic sensors are becoming an imporant component in the automotive industry. Ultrosound devices can offer navigation and environment recognition features, complementary to those offered by LIDAR. Namely, ultrasound provides the possibility to "see" through objets and operate under extreme weather conditions. In this context, it is important to count on ultrasound transducers with high sensitivity, low noise, small size and low cost. Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducers (PMUT), based on MEMS technolgy, offer these characteristics and, at the same time, are compatible with CMOS technology. In this project, a PMUT device will be developed based on a novel piezoelectric material, with the goal of improving the state of the art in terms of receiving sensitivity.

[1] Roy, Kaustav, Joshua En-Yuan Lee, and Chengkuo Lee. "Thin-film PMUTs: A Review of 40 Years of Research." arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.05814 (2023).

Assignment

• Perform a literature review on ultrasound transducers and MEMS resonators.
• Design and optimize PMUT devices, using Comsol.
• Fabricate the designed devices, using the fabrication tools available at Kavli Nanolab.
• Characterize the resulting devices with impedance measurements and ultrasound transducers.

Requirements

You must be motivated to work in cleanroom. Experience with FEM simulation packages such as Comsol is a plus.

Contact

Last modified: 2024-02-05