Inkjet-Printed Membrane for a Capacitive Acoustic Sensor: Development and Characterization Using Laser Vibrometer.

This paper describes the fabrication process and the method to determine the membrane tension and defects of an inkjet-printed circular diaphragm. The membrane tension is an important parameter to design and fabricate an acoustic sensor and resonator with the highest sensitivity and selectivity over a determined range of frequency. During this work, the diaphragms are fabricated by inkjet printing of conductive silver ink on pre-strained Mylar thin films, and the membrane tension is determined using the resonant frequency obtained from its measured surface velocity response to an acoustic excitation. The membrane is excited by an acoustic pressure generated by a loudspeaker, and its displacement (response) is acquired using a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV). The response of the fabricated membrane demonstrates good correlation with the numerical result. However, the inkjet-printed membrane exhibits undesired peaks, which appeared to be due to defects at their boundaries as observed from the scanning mode of LDV.

Fabrication of capacitive acoustic resonators combining 3D printing and 2D inkjet printing techniques.

A capacitive acoustic resonator developed by combining three-dimensional (3D) printing and two-dimensional (2D) printed electronics technique is described. During this work, a patterned bottom structure with rigid backplate and cavity is fabricated directly by a 3D printing method, and then a direct write inkjet printing technique has been employed to print a silver conductive layer. A novel approach has been used to fabricate a diaphragm for the acoustic sensor as well, where the conductive layer is inkjet-printed on a pre-stressed thin organic film. After assembly, the resulting structure contains an electrically conductive diaphragm positioned at a distance from a fixed bottom electrode separated by a spacer. Measurements confirm that the transducer acts as capacitor. The deflection of the diaphragm in response to the incident acoustic single was observed by a laser Doppler vibrometer and the corresponding change of capacitance has been calculated, which is then compared with the numerical result. Observation confirms that the device performs as a resonator and provides adequate sensitivity and selectivity at its resonance frequency.

Optimization of capacitive acoustic resonant sensor using numerical simulation and design of experiment.

Optimization of the acoustic resonant sensor requires a clear understanding of how the output responses of the sensor are affected by the variation of different factors. During this work, output responses of a capacitive acoustic transducer, such as membrane displacement, quality factor, and capacitance variation, are considered to evaluate the sensor design. The six device parameters taken into consideration are membrane radius, backplate radius, cavity height, air gap, membrane tension, and membrane thickness. The effects of factors on the output responses of the transducer are investigated using an integrated methodology that combines numerical simulation and design of experiments (DOE). A series of numerical experiments are conducted to obtain output responses for different combinations of device parameters using finite element methods (FEM). Response surface method is used to identify the significant factors and to develop the empirical models for the output responses. Finally, these results are utilized to calculate the optimum device parameters using multi-criteria optimization with desirability function. Thereafter, the validating experiments are designed and deployed using the numerical simulation to crosscheck the responses.