Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and scientists from the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) have developed a state-of-the-art sensor technology for underwater communication that can be implemented by the Navy.
Indigenous technology will enable manufacturing of equipment at a relatively low cost as compared to international foundries, where not only the cost of manufacturing is high but the number of foundries is also limited.
The country observes National Technology Day on 11 May and acknowledges the achievements of scientists, engineers and researchers.
Known as piezoelectric MEMS technology, it is needed to develop high-performance thin films and to replace ‘piezo thin film’, which is an important component of piezo MEMS devices and for acoustics and vibration-sensing applications. It is believed.
Piezo MEMS process recipe has been successfully developed jointly with DRDO team for complete fabrication of an acoustic sensor, without reducing the functionality of the piezo thin film.
The fabricated PZT thin film-based acoustic sensor exhibits higher performance than the conventional PVDF-based acoustic sensor. This state-of-the-art sensor technology allows researchers to create high-performance piezo MEMS acoustic devices, which would be beneficial for defense applications.
The research was led by Professors Amitava Das Gupta and Bobby George from IIT Madras along with E. Varadarajan, Scientist and V. Natarajan, DRDO Senior Scientist, DRDO Industry Academy – Ramanujan Center of Excellence (DIA-CRoE) at the Institute Was.
Mr Varadarajan said the main challenge in Piezo MEMS process technology is the need for high reliability and durability in the harsh underwater environment, high pressure and corrosive nature of seawater.