Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems
Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems

GraSonics – Highly sensitive broadband graphene ultrasonic transducers

© Fraunhofer ENAS
Optical microscope images of a silicon chip with microholes before the graphene transfer
Diese Maßnahme wird mitfinanziert mit Steuermitteln auf Grundlage des vom Sächsischen Landtag beschlossenen Haushaltes.

GraSonics is a project by three partners from three countries (Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland) that brings together expertise in the fields of graphene, MEMS, and ultrasound.

Graphene membranes, as the thinnest and most elastic membranes, can offer significantly better vibration, sound generation, and reception performance than metal or silicon membranes. The main goal is to provide an innovative solution for the current demand for highly precise and broadband ultrasonic components that can be used in many fields such as collision detection and echolocation, robotic applications, or medical imaging. GraSonics will employ graphene layers as vibrating membranes for electrostatically driven capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs), particularly for air-coupled ultrasonic transducers with high frequencies (>300 kHz).

Fraunhofer ENAS has taken on the development of CMUT-like silicon chips suitable for the transfer of graphene membranes, made a significant contribution to the work in the areas of MEMS design, fabrication, and integration, and supported the characterization and evaluation.

 

Our project partners:

  • J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry (Coordinator)
  • PBP OPTEL Sp. z o.o.

Project duration: June 15, 2022 – December 31, 2025