The first distributed-mass high-performance programmable optoelectromechanical steerable motion-wave sensors focused on sophisticated biomedical applications

Abstract

Abstract This paper introduces the first high-performance distributed-mass acoustic sensor made of cascaded differential phase shift suspended slot waveguide sections in a Mach–Zehnder interferometer optical transducer circuit. The heavyweight seismic mass used in traditional optoelectromechanical sensors is replaced by an fg lightweight coupling arm yielding an extra compact fast responding structure enabling utilizing over $$64$$ 64 cascaded sections and resulting in enhancing the performance by hundreds of times. The transducer operation relies on converting the acoustic vibration into phase modulation of the light for a splendid performance. The novel sensor architecture challenges achieving optical sensitivities higher than $$33\times {10}^{3} \%/\mathrm{g}$$ 33 × 10 3 % / g (33 times supersensitive), operating at ultrasonic acoustic speeds higher than 27 MHz, and recognizing resolutions in the 1 ng order. The programmable sensor is voltage-controlled supporting the operation in multimodes. Four operation modes are elucidated including the natural aspiration force, turbo electrostatic force open-loop voltage control, zero-force closed-loop voltage control, and dynamic turbo-force closed-loop voltage control. Wide dynamic ranges for controlling the optical sensitivity and maximum measurable acceleration up to 115.5 dB are reported. Steering capabilities of the acoustic beam in the azimuth plane are demonstrated utilizing two-spoke and three-spoke directional architectures supporting $$116.64^\circ$$ 116 . 64 ∘ and $$360^\circ$$ 360 ∘ of respective steering angles. Potential acoustic biosignal-based applications in the medical field are outlined.

Keywords

• Microoptoelectromechanical
• Distributed-mass sensor
• Steerable acoustic sensing
• Slot waveguide
• Mach–Zehnder interferometer
• Acoustic biosignal sensing