Micromechanical ultrasonic transducers (MUT) for production

Many monitoring, measurement, and characterization tasks in industry today are based on classic ultrasonic sensors. Micromechanical ultrasonic transducers (MUT) represent an innovative and effective further development that can open up new application areas thanks to their compact design and performance efficiency.

MUTs have decisive advantages over established transducers on the market that use piezo-ceramics and composite compounds: The very small and cost-effective MUT components enable a multi-channel array arrangement and a flexible frequency design for an optimum balance between distance and sensitivity.

The institutes Fraunhofer ENAS, IPMS, and ISIT have developed a MUT platform that can be quickly and flexibly adapted to applications and thus also offers small and medium-sized companies the opportunity to realize innovative ultrasonic transducers.

The alliance of the three institutes and the High-Performance Center "Functional Integration for Micro- and Nanoelectronics" with a geographical focus on Saxony offers a broad technology portfolio and the infrastructure for pilot production in its clean rooms.

Technologies: CMUT, NED and PMUT

Fraunhofer IPMS focuses on capacitive (CMUT) and electrostatic (NED) solutions, while Fraunhofer ISIT concentrates on piezoelectric (PMUT) ultrasonic transducers. Fraunhofer ENAS is working on the development of both capacitive (CMUT) and piezoelectric (PMUT) ultrasonic transducers. Due to the different technologies of the institutes, solutions for a wide range of applications in the entire frequency range from 20 kHz to 20 MHz can be offered. The institutes can jointly offer application-specific development services along the whole value chain from design to production, characterization, assembly, and connection technology to system integration.

Participating FMD member institutes: Fraunhofer ENAS, IPMS and ISIT

Acoustic Components @ Fraunhofer ENAS