STTR Phase II: High Performance Piezoelectric MEMS Microphones

该小型企业技术转让(STTR)第二阶段项目将开发一种用于测试和测量(T&Amm；M)市场的麦克风，该麦克风采用压电微机电系统(MEMS)技术。在该项目的第一阶段，通过制造和测试具有该市场所需性能的麦克风，证明了可行性。具体地说，这种麦克风的噪声底限比之前演示的任何压电式MEMS麦克风都低10倍。独特的设备建模和优化实现了这一显著的性能提升，从而形成了一种新的麦克风。在该项目的第二阶段，将通过与生产铸造厂合作开发制造工艺来加速商业化工作，从而实现这些部件的大规模制造。要成功完成这项任务，需要在成品率超过90%的生产铸造厂中进行可重复制造。这个第二阶段的项目还寻求进一步开发自校准能力，建立在第一阶段展示的这些麦克风的一个独特方面的基础上。成功完成这项任务将使麦克风能够将自己的灵敏度确定到标准校准方法确定的灵敏度的1分贝以内。由于麦克风在当今市场的广泛使用，该项目的广泛影响/商业潜力是显著的。S的这款麦克风将设备简单性和高性能独特地结合在一起，从而形成了一种新型麦克风，填补了消费电子应用中使用的极低成本麦克风与实验室和测试设施中使用的极高成本麦克风之间的空白。通过与麦克风和相关系统的制造商和最终用户的讨论，该公司已经确定，这种设备将使广泛的应用受益。这些麦克风将显著降低复杂T&M系统的成本，例如成本可能超过100万美元的阵列，并提高噪声控制工程师、安全生产检查员、警察和其他许多人使用的设备的精确度。此外，这种麦克风技术不仅有可能影响T&amp；M市场，还为助听器和消费电子市场提供了优势。这项技术的潜在市场总额超过25亿美元。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project will develop a microphone for the test and measurement (T&M) market that utilizes piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. During Phase I of this project, feasibility was demonstrated by building and testing a microphone with the necessary performance for this market. Specifically, this microphone has a noise floor that is 10 times lower than any piezoelectric MEMS microphone previously demonstrated. The unique device modeling and optimization that allowed for this significant performance improvement enables a new class of microphones. During Phase II of this project, the commercialization effort will be accelerated by partnering with a production foundry to develop a fabrication process, enabling the mass fabrication of these parts. Successful completion of this task requires the repeatable fabrication in a production foundry with yield exceeding 90%. This Phase II project also seeks to further develop self-calibration capabilities, building on a unique aspect of these microphones demonstrated during Phase I. Successful completion of this task will result in a microphone capable of determining its own sensitivity to within 1 dB of that determined by standard calibration methods.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is significant due to the widespread use of microphones in today's markets. This microphone?s unique combination of device simplicity and high performance enables a new class of microphones that fills the gap between extremely low-cost microphones used in consumer electronics applications and extremely high-cost microphones used in laboratories and test facilities. Through discussions with manufacturers and end-users of microphones and related systems, the company have determined that a wide range of applications would benefit from such a device. These microphones will significantly reduce the cost of complex T&M systems such as arrays that can cost more than $1M and improve the accuracy of equipment used by noise control engineers, work safety inspectors, police officers, and many others. Further, this microphone technology not only has the potential to impact the T&M market, but provides advantages for the hearing aid and consumer electronics markets as well. The total addressable market for this technology is more than $2.5B.