US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Raymond C McGowan

Elio A Mariani

Muhammad A Mizan

James T Stewart

A surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensing device for remotely sensing structu integrity of a physical structure. The sensing device includes a piezoelectric substrate with a notch formed part way in the bottom of the substrate and along the width thereof. The substrate is mounted to a physical structure of interest. An antenna is coupled to the RF circuit on the substrate and is capable of receiving and transmitting a RF signal. Interdigital input and output transducers are disposed on the upper surface of the substrate. The input transducer is located adjacent one end of the substrate and the output transducer is located adjacent an opposing end of the substrate. Bus bars connect the input and output transducers. The input transducer provides a complementary first response upon receipt of an RF expanded linear/nonlinear FM signal from the antenna and transmits this compressed pulse to the output transducer. The output transducer provides a second response upon receipt of the first response and transmits the same to the antenna via the bus bar. When the substrate is strained beyond a predetermined critical level, the substrate is fractured along the notch and the first response emitted by the input transducer is prevented from being transmitted to the output transducer indicating SAW sensor failure and that structural integrity has been compromised.

Remote sensing of structural integrity using a surface acoustic wave

An X-band (8-12.5 GHz) amplifier comprises a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) arranged for receiving an X-band signal, amplifying the signal and providing the amplified signal to further circuitry. Input and output matching networks are advantageously provided for the BJT. Each network may have a first end for connection to a BJT and a second end for connection to a terminal, and may comprise a series connection of a first inductor, a first capacitor and a second inductor extending from the first end to the second end in that order; a third inductor connected between ground and the connection point of the first capacitor and the second inductor; and a second capacitor connected between ground and the second end. The various reactance components may be implemented on a dielectric board, for example by microstriplines and/or shaped cladding portions. An X-band oscillator may comprise the X-band amplifier described above, and a feedback circuit interconnecting an output and an input of the amplifier. The feedback circuit may comprise first and second feedback means, for example microstriplines, which may be coupled to a dielectric resonator.

X-band bipolar junction transistor amplifier

A dual channel flexural device is fabricated on a gallium arsenide (GaAs) bstrate that includes a pair of elongated active vibrating (GaAs) bars formed in the substrate that serve as acoustic waveguides. One of the bars serves as a reference channel, while the other bar is covered with a chemically sensitive coating and operates as a sensing channel. A pair of pseudo-surface acoustic wave (SAW) transducers serving as input and output transducers are located at each end of the bars. Each of the transducers is comprised of discontinuous U-shaped elements having dimensions and mutual separations of one half the acoustic operating wavelength formed on one side of the substrate while ground electrodes are formed thereunder on the opposite side of the substrate. When the transducers are energized, a flexural motion in the bars is set up, causing the bars to vibrate. The vibration of the chemically coated bar changes in response to absorption of vaporous contaminants providing a device which operates in a differential mode for chemical vapor sensing.

Dual-channel flexural acoustic wave chemical sensor

A dielectric resonator oscillator having a resonant structure connected to an amplifier the output of which is fed back to the input of the resonant structure. The resonant structure includes a metal cavity in which a dielectric disk is centrally mounted by a low-loss dielectric post. A pair of microstrip transmission lines extend into the cavity to provide energy outputs and inputs. Dielectric and conductive tuning screws are mounted on the cavity walls. Electrical tuning is provided via a varactor diode whose bias is adjustable. The diode may be connected in series or parallel with the microstrip transmission line.

Low-cost, low-noise, temperature-stable, tunable dielectric resonator

A method and apparatus directed to a thin film piezoelectric resonator deposited on a support layer of dielectric material and being configured in the form of a cantilever structure having a base portion formed on an integrated circuit substrate and having an overhanging beam portion joined at one end to the base portion, with the opposite end being unsupported with an air-gap intermediate the beam portion and the substrate. In the fabrication of the resonator, a thin film of dielectric material, e.g. zinc oxide (ZnO) is first deposited on the substrate, but is subsequently removed from beneath the beam portion resulting in the air-gap which is open on three sides and thus results in a greater ease of fabrication. A completely monolithic chemical detector is implemented utilizing a matched pair of these cantilevered air-gap thin film resonators, with one of the resonators further including a coating on one of its electrodes and which is responsive to a predetermined chemical to cause a frequency shift in the presence of the chemical to be detected. In one embodiment of the chemical detector, the frequency outputs of the two resonators are compared with the difference frequency providing an indication of the chemical being detected.

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Neptune, NJ, United States of America

Raymond C McGowan