A micromechanical ultrasonic distance sensor with >1 meter range

Author

Przybyla, Richard ; Flynn, Anita ; Jain, Vipul ; Shelton, Stefon ; Guedes, André ; Izyumin, Igor ; Horsley, David ; Boser, Bernhard

Author_Institution

Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

5-9 June 2011

Firstpage

2070

Lastpage

2073

Abstract

Ultrasonic distance sensors based on piezoceramic transducers have >;1m range and millimeter accuracy but require the use of bulky transducers. Existing micromachined sensors deliver inferior performance, with maximum range in the tens of centimeters. We present theory, design equations, and measured results for a micromechanical ultrasonic distance sensor which approaches the performance of piezoceramic-based solutions. The sensor has a maximum range >;1300mm and random errors (3σ) of <;1.7mm at 1.3m.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; micromachining; microsensors; piezoceramics; ultrasonic transducers; wide band gap semiconductors; AlN; bulky transducers; micromachined sensor; micromechanical ultrasonic distance sensor; millimeter accuracy; piezoceramic transducer; Acoustics; Band pass filters; Bandwidth; Signal to noise ratio; Transducers; Ultrasonic imaging; Ultrasound transducer; aluminum nitride; distance sensor; micromachined; piezoelectric; time-of-flight;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International

Conference_Location

Beijing

ISSN

Pending

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0157-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2011.5969226

Filename

5969226