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Development of a MEMS Piezoresistive Aeroacoustic Microphone

Increases in air traffic and tighter restrictions on noise pollution in and around airports have motivated research to reduce the aeroacoustic noise generated by aircraft.  Aeroacoustic testing with microphone arrays is used to identify and help design acoustic treatments on new and existing aircraft in order to reduce the noise signature of the aircraft.  The performance of a microphone array is a function of the number of microphones used, which is traditionally limited by the cost of each sensor.  Piezoresistive MEMS microphones take advantage of batch fabrication wafer processing to reduce sensor cost and achieve higher sensor packing densities in aeroacoustic arrays.  Thus, an increase in performance can be achieved for an equivalent, or possibly reduced, cost.

Optical Shear Stress Sensor

Design, fabricate, calibrate, and test time-resolved, direct shear stress sensors capable of measuring stresses in harsh environments using miniaturized optics.  Optical gratings on the floating element sensor generate Moire fringe patterns for optical amplification of the floating element displacements due to applied shear stress.

MEMS-based Optical Sensors for High Temperature Applications

The goal of this research is to develop a pressure sensor and shear stress sensor that are able to provide continuous, time-resolved flow measurements within high temperature environments such as those seen in hypersonic wind tunnels and turbines.  A primary focus of this research is on the micromachining of sapphire using a picosecond laser.  Sapphire’s mechanical and thermal properties make it an ideal material for high temperature measurements.  Each sensor operates by mechanically deflecting under either a pressure or shear stress.  These deflections can then be detected using an opto-mechanical transduction scheme.  The completed sensors will be tested in flow cells and wind tunnels at UF as well as in other transonic and hypersonic facilities.

J-355PS Picosecond Laser Micromachining Workstation from Oxford Lasers