University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.

United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Pegasense, LLC

Donald Chester Malocha

Nikolai Kozlovski

Derek Puccio

Brian Hal Fisher

Robert C Youngquist

Nancy Saldanha

Mark Gallagher

An acousto-electric amplifier having insertion gain is provided. The acousto-electric amplifier comprises resistive material coupled to sensors such as conductive fingers. The conductive fingers are disposed on piezoelectric material. The piezoelectric material may be disposed on or above the piezoelectric material. Transducers may be used to couple a surface acoustic wave to and from the acousto-electric amplifier. The acousto-electric amplifier amplifies the surface acoustic wave in one propagation direction and attenuates a surface wave in the opposite propagation direction.

Acousto-electric amplifier having insertion gain

A method for fabricating a sensor system includes providing a surface acoustic wave (SAW) tag on a substrate including a detector bank of reflectors at one end to generate a detector SAW responsive to an interrogation signal, a reference bank of reflectors at an opposite end of the substrate to generate a reference SAW responsive to the interrogation signal, and a transducer between the detector and reference banks of reflectors for receiving the interrogation signal and transmitting the detector and reference SAW from the detector and the reference banks of reflectors in response. A hydrogen gas sensor is formed on the substrate in a propagation delay path (delay path) between the detector bank of reflectors and the transducer to modulate propagation parameters of the detector SAW in response to sensing hydrogen gas. The forming includes depositing a SnOfilm then depositing a Pd film onto the SnOfilm.

Method of forming surface acoustic wave tag-based gas sensors

A surface acoustic wave (SAW)-based coherence multiplexing system includes SAW tags each including a SAW transducer, a first SAW reflector positioned a first distance from the SAW transducer and a second SAW reflector positioned a second distance from the SAW transducer. A transceiver including a wireless transmitter has a signal source providing a source signal and circuitry for transmitting interrogation pulses including a first and a second interrogation pulse toward the SAW tags, and a wireless receiver for receiving and processing response signals from the SAW tags. The receiver receives scrambled signals including a convolution of the wideband interrogation pulses with response signals from the SAW tags and includes a computing device which implements an algorithm that correlates the interrogation pulses or the source signal before transmitting against the scrambled signals to generate tag responses for each of the SAW tags.

Surface acoustic wave tag-based coherence multiplexing

Methods, systems and devices for a coded SAW tag and hydrogen gas sensor with substrate, detector and identical reference bank of reflectors fabricated the substrate to generate a surface acoustic wave in response to a interrogation signal, a transducer between the detector and reflectors, and a tin dioxide (SnO) and palladium (Pd) film sensitive to hydrogen gas at ambient temperature deposited in a propagation delay path between the reflectors and the transducer to modulate the detector surface acoustic wave propagation parameters in response to sensing a hydrogen gas. The SnO2 and Pd film is deposited on the delay path by depositing the film through a mask. The deposited film is annealed to gain room-temperature hydrogen sensitivity and reversibility.

Passive, wireless, surface acoustic wave identification tag with hydrogen gas sensor

Methods, systems and devices for correlator time delay extraction for wireless acoustic wave devices. A receiver receives an analog signal as a sum of plural different analog coded signals each having a different time delay and matched filters corresponding to the acoustic devices is used to extract the time delay to recover the original plural different analog coded signals. In an embodiment the acoustic devices generate orthogonal-frequency codes signals with block-time-diversity to reduce the cross-correlation 'noise' due to multi-codes. The time diversity spreads the tags ensemble energy in time, thereby reducing the time energy density. An estimate of the delay time using the passband frequency phase slope, or in the time domain by using the correlation peak, is obtained.

Correlator time delay extraction for wireless acoustic sensors

A wireless surface acoustic wave sensor includes a piezoelectric substrate, a surface acoustic wave device formed on the substrate, and an antenna formed on the substrate. In some embodiments, the antenna is formed on the surface of the substrate using one or more of photolithography, thin film processing, thick film processing, plating, and printing.

Wireless SAW sensors having integrated antennas

Methods and systems for passive wireless surface acoustic wave devices for orthogonal frequency coded devices to implement ON-OFF sensors reusing orthogonal frequency code and distinguishing between ON and OFF states using additional PN sequence and on/off switches producing multi-level coding as well as external stimuli for switching and identification of a closure system. An embodiment adds a level of diversity by adding a dibit to each surface acoustic wave devices, thus providing four different possible coding states. The PN on-off coding can be with the dibit for coding in a multi-tag system.

Implementation of on-off passive wireless surface acoustic wave sensor using coding and switching techniques

Methods and systems for coding SAW OFC devices to mitigate code collisions in a wireless multi-tag system. Each device producing plural stepped frequencies as an OFC signal with a chip offset delay to increase code diversity. A method for assigning a different OFC to each device includes using a matrix based on the number of OFCs needed and the number chips per code, populating each matrix cell with OFC chip, and assigning the codes from the matrix to the devices. The asynchronous passive multi-tag system includes plural surface acoustic wave devices each producing a different OFC signal having the same number of chips and including a chip offset time delay, an algorithm for assigning OFCs to each device, and a transceiver to transmit an interrogation signal and receive OFC signals in response with minimal code collisions during transmission.

Orthogonal frequency coding for surface acoustic wave devices

Weighted surface acoustic wave reflector gratings for coding identification tags and sensors to enable unique sensor operation and identification for a multi-sensor environment. In an embodiment, the weighted reflectors are variable while in another embodiment the reflector gratings are apodized. The weighting technique allows the designer to decrease reflectively and allows for more chips to be implemented in a device and, consequently, more coding diversity. As a result, more tags and sensors can be implemented using a given bandwidth when compared with uniform reflectors. Use of weighted reflector gratings with OFC makes various phase shifting schemes possible, such as in-phase and quadrature implementations of coded waveforms resulting in reduced device size and increased coding.

Weighted SAW reflector gratings for orthogonal frequency coded SAW tags and sensors

Methods and systems for coding SAW OFC devices to mitigate code collisions in a wireless multi-tag system. Each device producing plural stepped frequencies as an OFC signal with a chip offset delay to increase code diversity. A method for assigning a different OCF to each device includes using a matrix based on the number of OFCs needed and the number chips per code, populating each matrix cell with OFC chip, and assigning the codes from the matrix to the devices. The asynchronous passive multi-tag system includes plural surface acoustic wave devices each producing a different OFC signal having the same number of chips and including a chip offset time delay, an algorithm for assigning OFCs to each device, and a transceiver to transmit an interrogation signal and receive OFC signals in response with minimal code collisions during transmission.

Surface acoustic wave coding for orthogonal frequency coded devices

Apparatus, systems, devices and methods for providing an orthogonal frequency coding technique for surface acoustic wave sensors incorporating the use of multiple parallel acoustic tracks to provide increased coding by phase shifting and delaying a code sequence. The surface acoustic wave sensor includes parallel tracks with multiple reflectors with differing delay offsets to form a complex code sequence. The reflectors may be uniform, but alternatively could include fingers withdrawn, have reflector position modulation, differing frequencies or be spatially weighted.

Delayed offset multi-track OFC sensors and tags

Weighted saw reflector gratings for orthogonal frequency coded SAW ID tags and sensors

A secure apparatus, system, device and method for coding surface acoustic wave identification tags and sensors to enable unique sensor operation and identification for a multi-sensor environment. In an embodiment, a pseudo noise sequence is applied to the orthogonally coded signal for increased security. An orthogonal frequency coding technique is applied to the SAW tag using periodic reflector gratings for responding to an orthogonal interrogation signal to transmit the sensor identification and sensed data. A transceiver interrogates the sensor with a stepped chirp corresponding to the orthogonal frequency coded chip frequency response, receives a response from the SAW device, applies an oppositely stepped chirp to the response and then uses matched filtering to produce a compressed pulse. The orthogonal frequency coding technique has an inherent advantage of processing gain, code division multiple access, spread spectrum and security.

Orthogonal frequency coding for surface acoustic wave communication, tag and sensor application

A surface acoustic wave sensor or tag having multiple transducer/antenna pairs each having a different center frequency. The bandwidth of each transducer/antenna pair is inversely proportional to the number of transducer/antennas pairs used and the bandwidth is the sum of the bandwidth of the transducer/antenna pairs. Implementing a SAW sensor or tag with multiple transducer/antenna pairs significantly reduces device losses and improves the performance of the device since the individual transducer/antenna pair's fractional bandwidth is reduced by the ratio of the system bandwidth to the number of transducer antenna pairs used in the sensor.

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Winter Springs, FL, United States of America

Donald Chester Malocha