| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20090102317 | GLASS BASED PACKAGING AND ATTACHMENT OF SAW TORQUE SENSOR - A glass cover wafer is bonded to a quartz SAW using glass frit technology, such that the glass wafer and glass frit formulation provides a thermal coefficient of expansion (TCE) of glass that fits the average TCE of the quartz in two perpendicular directions in a unique package. A dicing technology is used for chip separation. The sensor back side and the shaft are attached with a glass glue that transitions the TCE from the shaft to the quartz without interposing a large amount of the glue. | 04-23-2009 |
| 20090193874 | METHOD FOR CHEMICAL SENSOR FABRICATION AND RELATED SENSOR - A method includes forming a hole in a first wafer and forming a sensor structure in or on a second wafer. The second wafer includes a piezoelectric material. The method also includes bonding the first wafer and the second wafer, where the sensor structure is located between the wafers. The method further includes forming a sensing layer by depositing material between the wafers through the hole in the first wafer. The sensing layer could be formed by depositing a sensing layer material on the second wafer using direct printing. Also, the hole through the first wafer could be formed using ultrasonic milling, micro-drilling, laser drilling, wet etching, and/or plasma etching. A spacer material could be used to bond the wafers together, such as frit glass paste or an organic adhesive. Trenches could be formed in the first wafer to facilitate easier separation of multiple sensors. | 08-06-2009 |
| 20090193897 | COMPOSITION FOR MATERIAL SENSING AND RELATED METHOD AND APPARATUS - A sensor includes a piezoelectric substrate and conductive elements formed in or over the substrate. The sensor also includes a sensing layer formed over the substrate. The sensing layer has one or more properties (such as a mass loading, an electrical property, or a visco-elastic property) that vary based on at least one measurand to be measured by the sensor (such as carbon dioxide). This may affect, for example, a propagation velocity of acoustic waves in the sensor and/or a resonant frequency of the sensor. The sensing layer includes a combination of polyaniline and carbonic anhydrase. The combination of polyaniline and carbonic anhydrase could be formed using an emeraldine base. For instance, an aniline can be dissolved in water to form a mixture, and hydrochloric acid and an oxidant can be added to the mixture. A chemical polymerization of the aniline in the mixture can be performed to form polyanilne. | 08-06-2009 |
| 20090193903 | METHOD FOR SENSOR FABRICATION AND RELATED SENSOR AND SYSTEM - A method includes forming multiple trenches in a first wafer, forming a sensor structure on a first surface of a second wafer, and bonding the first wafer and the second wafer. The method also includes etching a second surface of the second wafer to form a sensor diaphragm in the second wafer. The method further includes removing a portion of the first wafer by cutting the first wafer in multiple areas of the first wafer associated with the trenches. A sensor includes a substrate and a surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator on a first surface of the substrate. The sensor also includes a bonding pad electrically coupled to the SAW resonator and a notch formed in a second surface of the substrate. The sensor further includes a cover separated from the first surface of the substrate by a spacer. The SAW resonator is located between the cover and the substrate. | 08-06-2009 |
| 20090267761 | INTELLIGENT PACKAGING METHOD AND SYSTEM BASED ON ACOUSTIC WAVE DEVICES - An intelligent packaging system utilizing acoustic wave devices includes an electronic module, a SAW ID, various passive SAW sensors and a printed antenna. The passive SAW sensors include a SAW pressure sensor, a SAW temperature sensor and one or more SAW chemical sensors for monitoring physical parameters of a package content. The electronic module generally includes a printed large area distributed electrical circuit, an impedance transformer and a SAW transponder for realizing passive wireless monitoring of the structural integrity of the package. A separate power harvesting antenna and/or a separate dual band antenna can generate radio frequency (RF) power for biasing components associated with the electronic module. | 10-29-2009 |
| 20100084010 | Solar Cell Having Tandem Organic and Inorganic Structures and Related System and Method - A solar cell includes an organic heterojunction having at least one donor material and at least one acceptor material. The solar cell also includes an inorganic heterojunction having multiple inorganic semiconductor materials. The organic heterojunction and the inorganic heterojunction could absorb light in different portions of a solar spectrum. For example, the organic heterojunction could absorb higher-energy photons, and the inorganic heterojunction could absorb lower-energy photons. The inorganic heterojunction could include a p-type inorganic semiconductor material having a bandgap between one and two electron-volts and an n-type inorganic semiconductor material having a bandgap greater than three electron-volts. An inorganic semiconductor layer could be placed between the organic heterojunction and the inorganic heterojunction. The inorganic semiconductor layer could be configured to collect holes generated by the organic heterojunction and to block electrons generated by the organic heterojunction. | 04-08-2010 |
| 20100127834 | PASSIVE SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVE SENSING SYSTEM - The present disclosure relates generally to wireless detection systems. In one illustrative embodiment, a wireless detection system includes a plurality of surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors, and an electronic reader for interrogating the plurality of SAW sensors. In some instances, each of the surface acoustic wave based sensors includes an integrated sensor coil. The electronic reader may include a plurality of reader coils and a controller. The controller may be configured to interrogate the plurality of surface acoustic wave based sensors using a time division interrogation. In some cases, each of the plurality of reader coils is inductively coupled to only one of the integrated coils of the SAW sensors at any given time. | 05-27-2010 |
| 20100141087 | SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVE BASED SENSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD UTILIZING SEMI-SYNCHRONOUS SAW RESONATORS - A SAW based sensor apparatus utilizing semi-synchronous SAW resonator having a single resonance at Bragg frequency with very high quality factor is disclosed. The semi-synchronous SAW resonator includes at least one inter-digital transducer, which generates and receives surface acoustic wave and a number of grating reflectors, which reflect the surface acoustic wave and generate a standing wave between the reflectors, The interdigital transducer and the grating reflectors can be fabricated on a substrate (e.g., quartz) by photolithographic process. The resonance condition is independent of transducer directivity and reflection coefficient per finger. Such a SAW based sensor apparatus having three semi-synchronous SAW resonators can be utilized for measuring pressure and temperature for a wireless tire-pressure monitoring system. | 06-10-2010 |
| 20100158071 | SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVE BASED MICRO-SENSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY MONITORING MULTIPLE CONDITIONS - A SAW-based micro-sensor apparatus for simultaneously monitoring acceleration/vibration and temperature utilizing a sensing element configured as a SAW device (e.g., SAW resonator or SAW delay line). The SAW device can be located in different locations on a substrate with respect to a thin piezoelectric diaphragm comprising an inertial mass. The temperature-compensated acceleration/vibration can be measured utilizing a frequency difference between an acceleration sensitive SAW resonator (e.g., SAW-g) and a temperature sensitive SAW resonator (e.g., SAW-T). The temperature can be measured utilizing a frequency shift provided by the SAW-T and a temperature reference SAW resonator (e.g., SAW-R). Similarly, the phase response of different reflectors of the SAW delay line can be utilized to differentially measure the acceleration/vibration and temperature. | 06-24-2010 |
| 20110049579 | THIN-FILM TRANSISTOR BASED PIEZOELECTRIC STRAIN SENSOR AND METHOD - A piezoelectric strain sensor and method thereof for detecting strain, vibration, and/or pressure. The sensor incorporates a sequence of piezoelectric and semiconductor layers in a thin-film transistor structure. The thin-film transistor structure can be configured on a flexible substrate via a low-cost fabrication technique. The piezoelectric layer generates an electric charge resulting in a modulation of a transistor current, which is a measure of external strain. The sensor can be formed as a single gate field-effect piezoelectric sensor and a dual gate field-effect piezoelectric sensor. The semiconductor layer can be configured from a nanowire array resulting in a metal-piezoelectric-nanowire field effect transistor. The single and dual gate field-effect piezoelectric sensor offer increased sensitivity and device control due to the presence of the piezoelectric layer in the transistor structure and low cost manufacturability on large area flexible substrates. | 03-03-2011 |
| 20110113856 | ALL-DIFFERENTIAL RESONANT NANOSENSOR APPARATUS AND METHOD - An all-differential resonant nanosensor apparatus for detecting multiple gasses and method of fabricating the same. The nanosensor apparatus generally includes a sensing loop, a reference loop, and a mixer. A sensing self assembled monolayer (SAM) or an ultrathin solid monolayer may be deposited on a sensing resonant beam associated with the sensing loop to detect the presence of the gas. A reference self assembled monolayer or an ultrathin solid film may be deposited on a reference resonant beam that possess similar visco-elastic properties (e.g., temperature, humidity and aging) as the sensing monolayer with no sensing properties. A differential reading electronic circuit may be interconnected with each resonant beam pair for signal processing. A drift-free frequency signal per each gas may be obtained by subtracting the frequency response from the sensing loop and the reference loop. | 05-19-2011 |
| 20110116974 | FUNCTIONALIZED MONOLAYERS FOR CARBON DIOXIDE DETECTION BY A RESONANT NANOSENSOR - A resonant nanosensor apparatus associated with a functionalized monolayer for detecting carbon dioxide and a method of forming the same. A wafer including a sensing vibrating beam and a reference vibrating beam may be functionalized with a functional group in order to form a sensing self monolayer. The sensing self assembled monolayer may be configured by bridging oxygen or carbon atoms covalently bonded with respect to the vibrating beams. A liquid solution of hydrochloric acid may then be applied to the sensing self assembled monolayer at the surface of the reference beam by a direct printing process to obtain a reference monolayer. The liquid solution of HCl transforms the functional groups responsible for the carbon dioxide detection into protonated groups, which do not react with carbon dioxide, but possess visco-elastic properties similar to that of the sensing monolayer. | 05-19-2011 |
