Precision ultrasound sensing on a chip

Sahar Basiri-Esfahani, Ardalan Armin, Stefan Forstner and Warwick P. Bowen ()
Additional contact information
Sahar Basiri-Esfahani: The University of Queensland
Ardalan Armin: The University of Queensland
Stefan Forstner: The University of Queensland
Warwick P. Bowen: The University of Queensland

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Ultrasound sensors have wide applications across science and technology. However, improved sensitivity is required for both miniaturisation and increased spatial resolution. Here, we introduce cavity optomechanical ultrasound sensing, where dual optical and mechanical resonances enhance the ultrasound signal. We achieve noise equivalent pressures of 8–300 μPa Hz−1/2 at kilohertz to megahertz frequencies in a microscale silicon-chip-based sensor with >120 dB dynamic range. The sensitivity far exceeds similar sensors that use an optical resonance alone and, normalised to the sensing area, surpasses previous air-coupled ultrasound sensors by several orders of magnitude. The noise floor is dominated by collisions from molecules in the gas within which the acoustic wave propagates. This approach to acoustic sensing could find applications ranging from biomedical diagnostics, to autonomous navigation, trace gas sensing, and scientific exploration of the metabolism-induced-vibrations of single cells.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08038-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-08038-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-08038-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().