SBIR Phase II: Ultrasonic 3D Rangefinding for Mobile Gesture Recognition

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目提出了开发一种用于移动手势识别的超低功率超声波三维(3D)测距系统。拟议的3D测距仪使用了一组微小的压电式超声波换能器，这些换能器利用微制造技术建立在硅片上。定制的电子设备用于控制换能器，系统向空气中发射声音，并从换能器阵列前面的物体接收回声。拟议中的超声波3D测距仪具有足够小和低功率的潜力，足以连续开启，为智能手机、平板电脑和可穿戴电子设备等设备提供了一种感知周围环境中物理对象的方法。仅根据智能手机市场，这款设备的潜在市场规模就超过每年10亿部。移动情景感知将实现与智能手机和平板电脑的3D交互，为游戏和汽车免提控制等应用程序提供丰富的用户界面。展望智能手机和平板电脑市场之外，拟议中的测距仪将具有尺寸和功率优势，将允许集成到厘米大小的设备中，这些设备太小，无法支持触摸屏。在第二阶段，该项目的主要技术目标是将超声换能器的制造从大学实验室转移到商业生产设施，开发用于信号处理的定制集成电路，并开发工程原型。在第一阶段，开发了具有新结构的微机械超声换能器，以提高可制造性，并使用在个人计算机上运行的信号处理算法建立了演示原型。在第二阶段，超声换能器将首次在商业设施中制造，信号处理算法将在定制的混合信号集成电路上实现。将开发换能器和集成电路芯片的原型包，并将对封装的原型进行详细的声学测试。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes the development of an ultralow-power ultrasonic three-dimensional (3D) rangefinder system for mobile gesture recognition. The proposed 3D rangefinder uses an array of tiny piezoelectric ultrasound transducers which are built on a silicon wafer using microfabrication techniques. Custom electronics are used to control the transducers and the system emits sound into the air and receives echoes from objects in front of the transducer array. The proposed ultrasonic 3D rangefinder has the potential to be small and low-power enough to be left on continuously, giving devices such as smartphones, tablets, and wearable electronic devices a way to sense physical objects in the surrounding environment. Based on the smartphone market alone, the potential market size for this device is over one billion units per year. Mobile contextual awareness will enable 3D interaction with smartphones and tablets, facilitating rich user interfaces for applications such as gaming and hands-free control in automobiles. Looking beyond the smartphone and tablet market, the proposed rangefinder will feature size and power advantages that will permit integration into centimeter-sized devices which are too small to support a touchscreen. During Phase II, the major technical goals of this project are to transfer the ultrasound transducer manufacturing from a university laboratory to a commercial production facility, to develop a custom integrated circuit for signal processing, and to develop engineering prototypes. In Phase I, micromachined ultrasound transducers having a novel structure designed to improve manufacturability were developed and a demonstration prototype was built using signal processing algorithms running on a personal computer. In Phase II, the ultrasound transducers will be manufactured in a commercial facility for the first time and signal processing algorithms will be realized on a custom mixed-signal integrated circuit. A prototype package for the transducer and integrated circuit chips will be developed and detailed acoustic testing of the packaged prototypes will be conducted.