SBIR Phase I: Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS)-Based Near-Zero Power Infrared Sensors for Proximity Detection

该小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目致力于开发一种同类产品中的首款接近感应器，该感应器在待机状态下可为非接触式界面应用提供近零功耗。接近探测器基于专有的微电子机械系统(MEMS)红外探测器技术，该技术比任何现有的红外探测器技术更准确、更紧凑，能效高100倍。这项创新是一种数字化、超低功耗、非制冷的红外探测器。2023年，这种接近传感器的总可寻址市场估计为47亿美元，该技术的可服务市场可达数亿美元。尽管接近和存在感知的市场非常广阔，但由于技术和市场准备情况，该团队选择将非接触式水龙头和汽车消毒器分配器作为上市应用。该产品及其商业化过程预计将在四个领域产生社会和经济影响，包括保护资源、促进卫生以及加强大学和企业之间的伙伴关系。该项目的智能优点包括首次展示了一种近乎零功率的接近传感器，具有宽视场、可调检测范围和在相关室内环境中的温度稳定性。无论目标信号是否存在，最先进的传感器都会持续耗尽电池电量。该团队最近打破了在待机模式下浪费能量的基本模式，发明了一种完全被动的传感器微系统，该系统可以通过仅利用特定物理特征中包含的能量来检测和区分感兴趣的事件。芯片规模的手部检测的剩余挑战包括有效地收集手部发出的微量热能以触发微机械光开关，同时实现对背景温度变化的高水平免疫力。一种新的等离子体增强型长波红外吸收器、阈值调节机制和真空封装被开发出来，预计将导致展示一种能够可靠地检测到2-10厘米距离的手的小型化原型，同时在待机模式下消耗不到1微安的电流。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks the development of a first-of-its-kind proximity sensor that consumes near-zero power at standby for touchless interface applications. The proximity detector is based on a proprietary micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) infrared detector technology that is more accurate, more compact, and 100 times more power efficient than any existing infrared detector technology. The innovation is a digitized, ultra-low power, uncooled infrared detector. The total addressable market for this proximity sensor is estimated to be ~$4.7 billion in 2023, with a serviceable obtainable market of hundreds of millions for the technology. Although the market for proximity and presence sensing is extremely broad, the team has chosen to target touchless faucets and auto sanitizer dispensers as the go-to-market applications due to the technology and market readiness. The product and its commercialization process are expected to create societal and economic impacts in four areas including conservation of resources, hygiene promotion, and enhanced partnerships between university and industry. The intellectual merit of this project includes the first demonstration of a near-zero power proximity sensor with a wide field-of-view, tunable detection range, and temperature stability in a relevant indoor environment. State-of-the-art sensors drain battery power continuously regardless of the presence of target signal. The team recently broke the fundamental paradigm of wasting energy in standby mode with the invention of a completely passive sensor microsystem that can detect and discriminate events of interest by exploiting only the energy contained in their specific physical signatures. Remaining challenges for chip-scale hand detection include efficiently harvesting the tiny amount of thermal energy emitted by a hand to trigger a micromechanical photo-switch while achieving a high level of immunity to background temperature changes. A new plasmonically-enhanced, long-wave infrared absorber, a threshold tuning mechanism, and vacuum packaging are developed and expected to lead to the demonstration of a miniaturized prototype capable of reliably detecting a hand at 2-10 cm distance, while consuming less than 1 microamp current in standby mode.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.