STTR Phase I: Ferrofluidic enclosures for enhanced control of thermal and magnetic fields in spin-stabilized atomic micro-devices

STTR 第一阶段：铁磁流体外壳，用于增强自旋稳定原子微型器件中热场和磁场的控制

• 批准号: 1417228
• 负责人: Yuri Shkel
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: CoMMET, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1417228&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Ferrofluidic; enclosures; enhanced

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is determined by new consumer products and new industries which would flourish on portable and reliable atomic clocks, gyroscopes, and magnetometers when they become available. Proposed compact thermal and magnetic enclosure reduces the most bulky part of such devices and provides an avenue for further miniaturization. A chip-scale atomic clocks would dramatically increase GPS resolution and relocking speed, computer clocks and broadband speed, better use of electromagnetic spectrum for communication and networking devices. Examples of inertia navigation applications with significant society impact include urban conditions, underwater or mountain terrain, building interior or underground facilities, areas with poor satellite reception or jammed signal. A typical reference source for recalibration of inertia navigational systems is the magnetometer measurements. In addition high resolution portable magnetometers would be essential in cars/highway safety, in industrial applications for material sorting and handling, quality control, and nondestructive defectoscopy. Bio-magnetic studies such as magnetic orientation of vertebrates (animal/birds/fish) and bacteria could bring many insights for human navigation as well. Biomedical diagnosis often uses magnetic measurements: this includes NMR scanning, study of brain electro-activity, blood cell counting, and DNA markers.This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project targets a micro-enclosure controlling temperature and magnetic field in chip-scale Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) devices. Precise control of the temperature and the magnetic field inside the camber containing vapor of alkali-metal atoms is critical for performance of NMR devices; however, current approaches depend on a bulky equipment which is far from being portable. A novelty of the proposed design is linking MNR chamber, heating elements, thermal sensor and solenoid coils by a ferrofluidic enclosure. High magnetic permeability of ferrofluid reduces the number of coils and the current density, required to produce the desired magnetic field and assists in providing highly uniform and controllable magnetic field in the micro-enclosure; in addition, ferrofluid operates as a heat reservoir keeping uniform and stable temperature regime. Ferrofluid could also self-sense a temperature change in the chamber without involving additional thermal sensors, thus simplifying the device construction and reducing its cost. The proposed activity includes development, prototyping and testing performance of the enclosure. Further development in Phase II would include coupling of the enclosure with a portable NMR chamber. Eventually, a similar approach will be applied for magnetic coupling with microfluidic sampling and probing stations for bio-magnetic studies.

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力取决于新的消费产品和新的行业，这些产品和行业将在便携式和可靠的原子钟、陀螺仪和磁力计上市后蓬勃发展。所提出的紧凑的热和磁外壳减少了这种设备的最笨重的部分，并提供了进一步小型化的途径。芯片级原子钟将大大提高GPS分辨率和重新锁定速度，计算机时钟和宽带速度，更好地利用电磁频谱进行通信和网络设备。具有重大社会影响的惯性导航应用实例包括城市条件、水下或山区地形、建筑物内部或地下设施、卫星接收不良或信号受到干扰的区域。惯性导航系统重新校准的典型参考源是磁力计测量值。此外，高分辨率便携式磁力计在汽车/高速公路安全、材料分类和处理、质量控制和无损探伤的工业应用中也是必不可少的。生物磁性研究，如脊椎动物（动物/鸟类/鱼类）和细菌的磁性定向，也可以为人类导航带来许多见解。生物医学诊断通常使用磁测量：这包括核磁共振扫描、脑电活动研究、血细胞计数和DNA标记。这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的目标是在芯片级核磁共振（NMR）设备中控制温度和磁场的微型外壳。精确控制含有碱金属原子蒸气的室内部的温度和磁场对于NMR设备的性能至关重要;然而，目前的方法依赖于笨重的设备，这远远不是便携式的。所提出的设计的新奇在于通过铁磁流体外壳将MNR室、加热元件、热传感器和螺线管线圈连接起来。铁磁流体的高磁导率减少了产生所需磁场所需的线圈数量和电流密度，并有助于在微外壳中提供高度均匀和可控的磁场;此外，铁磁流体作为热储器运行，保持均匀和稳定的温度状态。铁磁流体还可以在不涉及额外的热传感器的情况下自感测腔室中的温度变化，从而简化设备构造并降低其成本。拟议的活动包括外壳的开发、原型制作和性能测试。第二阶段的进一步发展将包括将外壳与便携式NMR室耦合。最终，类似的方法将应用于生物磁性研究的微流体采样和探测站的磁耦合。