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

声表面波是一种在弹性固体表面传播的声波。它们承载着重要的信息，并可以与压电衬底相互作用，这些共同导致了广泛的应用，包括滤波、模拟信号处理和量子声学设备。然而，大多数声表面波器件具有固定的结构和有限的可调谐性，并且其特性不能实时操纵。这种缺陷限制了使用SAW作为基本平台的当前电子设备的能力。这是实现锯机智能化和智能化控制的一大障碍，这是信息时代的追求。这项学院早期职业发展(CALEAR)计划旨在通过开发和优化超越无源、单功能设备的可调声表面波组件来克服这一技术差距。具体地说，它允许通过提供较小的栅极电压来方便地和可重新配置地调谐锯片。这项研究将加深对声表面波在压电衬底上传播的基本认识，实现可应用于各种场景的单片智能声表面波内核，最终实现用于传感、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。它将促进各级学生的教育和研究经验，特别是那些来自代表不足的群体的学生，在STEM领域培养和留住他们。这项提议的目标是通过利用电声效应来开发具有扩展功能和可调性的新型集成声表面波器件。为了实现这一点，将建立理论和数值模型，从微观波-物质相互作用的角度对压电和机电耦合进行量化。基于声表面波传播产生的线性和非线性效应，将识别具有门可调特性的新的调谐机制。将对与这些调谐方法相关的材料、配置和制造工艺进行系统测试和优化，以降低电压要求和响应时间。将进行实验测量，以证明声表面波传播具有更好的性能、容量和带宽。开发的可调谐声表面波器件将作为智能内核，与控制电路和其他配套硬件相耦合，实现智能化、多功能的集成片上器件。所提出的方法的适用性将在许多场景中得到验证，例如可重构滤波、多功能传感和基于SAW的可编程粒子操纵。这项研究将通过提供一种强大的方法来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了解，从而为下一代智能声表面波器件的开发做出贡献。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。

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.