CAREER: Toward Smart Surface Acoustic Wave Devices with Gate-Tunability

职业：开发具有栅极可调谐性的智能表面声波器件

• 批准号: 2337069
• 负责人: Chen Shen
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Rowan University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-05-01 至 2029-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2337069&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Toward; Smart; Surface; Acoustic

Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) are a type of sound waves that propagate at the surface of elastic solids. They carry important information and can interact with piezoelectric substrates, which together lead to a wide range of applications including filtering, analog signal processing, and quantum acoustic devices. However, most of the SAW devices have fixed configurations and limited tunability, and their properties cannot be manipulated in real-time. Such a drawback limits the ability of current electronic devices that use SAW as a fundamental platform. It represents a major barrier to achieving smart and intelligent control of SAWs, which is a pursuit in the information era. This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) proposal aims to overcome this technological gap by developing and optimizing tunable SAW components that go beyond passive, single-functionality devices. Specifically, it allows for convenient and reconfigurable tuning of SAWs by supplying a small gate voltage. This research will enhance the fundamental understanding of SAWs propagating on piezoelectric substrates and realize monolithic smart SAW kernels that can be applied in various scenarios to ultimately enable intelligent integrated devices for sensing, communication, and biomedical applications. The program will also help mitigate barriers to high-quality STEM education through the partnership with local community colleges. It will advance the education and research experience of students at all levels, especially those from underrepresented groups to cultivate and retain them in the STEM fields.The objective of this proposal is to develop novel integrated SAW devices with expanded functionality and tunability by harnessing the electro-acoustic effects. To achieve this, theoretical and numerical models will be established to quantify the piezoelectric and electromechanical couplings from a microscopic wave-matter interaction perspective. New tuning mechanisms with gate-tunable features will be identified based on both linear and nonlinear effects arising from SAW propagation. The material, configuration, and fabrication process associated with these tuning approaches will be systematically tested and optimized with the goal of reducing the voltage requirement and response time. Experimental measurements will be performed to demonstrate tunable SAW propagation with improved performance, capacity, and bandwidth. The developed tunable SAW component will serve as a smart kernel, which will be coupled with control circuits as well as other supporting hardware to realize intelligent and multi-functional integrated on-chip devices. The applicability of the proposed approach will be validated in a number of scenarios such as reconfigurable filtering, multi-functional sensing, and programmable SAW-based particle manipulation. The research will contribute to the development of next-generation smart SAW devices by providing a powerful approach that promotes a fundamental understanding of electrically induced elasticity modulation as well as gate-tunable components that can be integrated into diverse systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

表面声波 (SAW) 是一种在弹性固体表面传播的声波。它们携带重要信息，并可以与压电基板相互作用，从而产生广泛的应用，包括滤波、模拟信号处理和量子声学器件。然而，大多数声表面波器件具有固定的配置和有限的可调谐性，并且它们的属性无法实时操纵。这样的缺点限制了当前使用SAW作为基础平台的电子设备的能力。它是实现信息时代追求的声表面波智能控制的主要障碍。该教师早期职业发展 (CAREER) 提案旨在通过开发和优化超越无源、单一功能设备的可调谐 SAW 组件来克服这一技术差距。具体来说，它允许通过提供小栅极电压来方便且可重新配置的 SAW 调谐。这项研究将增强对压电基板上传播的声表面波的基本理解，并实现可应用于各种场景的单片智能声表面波内核，最终实现传感、通信和生物医学应用的智能集成设备。该计划还将通过与当地社区大学的合作，帮助减少高质量 STEM 教育的障碍。它将提高各级学生的教育和研究经验，特别是那些来自代表性不足群体的学生，以培养和保留他们在 STEM 领域的能力。该提案的目标是通过利用电来开发具有扩展功能和可调谐性的新型集成 SAW 设备。 -声学效果。为了实现这一目标，将建立理论和数值模型，从微观波与物质相互作用的角度量化压电和机电耦合。具有栅极可调特性的新调谐机制将根据 SAW 传播产生的线性和非线性效应来确定。与这些调谐方法相关的材料、配置和制造工艺将被系统地测试和优化，以降低电压要求和响应时间。我们将进行实验测量，以证明可调谐 SAW 传播具有改进的性能、容量和带宽。所开发的可调谐声表面波器件将作为智能内核，与控制电路以及其他支持硬件相结合，实现智能化、多功能的集成片上器件。所提出方法的适用性将在许多场景中得到验证，例如可重构过滤、多功能传感和基于声表面波的可编程粒子操纵。该研究将提供一种强大的方法，促进对电致弹性调制以及可集成到不同系统中的栅极可调组件的基本理解，从而为下一代智能 SAW 设备的开发做出贡献。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，并被认为值得支持。