Improving yield and ultrasound performance of thin film piezoelectric sensors

Novosound是一家总部位于苏格兰的中小企业，专门开发和商业化使用新型薄膜技术而不是传统陶瓷制造技术制造的超声波传感器。我们业务的核心是薄膜材料的沉积，然后用于制造我们的超声波换能器。这些产品销往全球能源、航空、医疗保健和可穿戴设备领域的蓝筹客户。薄膜是使用反应溅射工艺制造的，允许材料以有效和良好控制的方式生长。超声波的产生依赖于压电效应，这是通过薄膜中严格控制的晶体结构产生的。从材料科学的角度了解我们的薄膜涂层是如何受沉积参数的影响的，这对于提高通过QA的传感器的产量和改善我们整个产品线的声学输出至关重要。这将大大有利于业务的商业收入和新产品的开发和应用，在健康可穿戴设备和医疗成像。在这个项目中，我们的目标是利用NPL提供的材料科学和计量专业知识和设备，通过实验来真正了解我们的纳米和微米级压电薄膜，并进一步制造和集成这些传感器到我们的全球产品中。这将使我们能够继续我们的使命，推动超声波在医疗，工业和可穿戴市场的极限，并解决医疗保健和远程监测中的一些最大挑战。

Novosound is a Scotland-based SME specialising in developing and commercialising ultrasound sensors manufactured using a novel thin film technique instead of a traditional ceramic manufacturing technique. The core of our business is the deposition of our thin film material, which is then used to fabricate our ultrasonic transducers. These products are sold globally to blue-chip customers across energy, aviation, healthcare and wearables.The thin film is manufactured using a reactive sputtering process, allowing the material to be grown efficiently and in a well-controlled manner. The generation of ultrasound relies on the piezoelectric effect, which arises through a tightly controlled crystal structure in the thin film.Understanding how our thin film coating is affected by deposition parameters from a deep material science perspective is critical in increasing the yield of sensors that pass QA and improving the acoustic output of our whole product line. This will greatly benefit the business in terms of commercial revenues and the development of new products and applications in health wearables and medical imaging.In this project, we aim to use the material science and metrology expertise and equipment provided by NPL to truly understand, experimentally, our piezoelectric thin films at the nano and micron scale and the further fabrication and integration of these sensors into our global product offering.This will enable us to continue our mission of pushing the limits of ultrasound in medical, industrial and wearable markets and solve some of the biggest challenges in healthcare and remote monitoring.