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DOE OSTI · 3020957

Piezo-Antenna: An Electromagnetic-Ultrasonic Data Transfer System

Dix, Kevin Jordan [Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000302726457)·El-Kady, Ihab Fathy [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)]·Erturk, Alper [Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000301105376)
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Abstract

Electronic systems contained within sealed metallic enclosures, such as nuclear waste containers where wire penetration is not an option, require a through-wall data transfer technology to communicate. One such technology utilizes piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers to communicate through the barrier using elastic waves. Currently demonstrated ultrasonic through-wall data communication techniques have relied on having a direct interface with the ultrasonic transducers on either side. Here, this work studies the coupling of an antenna to such an ultrasonic communication system. A computationally efficient model of a piezobarrier ultrasonic communication system and antenna using a simplified antenna model and a transfer matrix piezobarrier model is utilized to perform a representative parameter space search. The system efficiency and bandwidth trends are shown for the system parameters as well as operating frequency. The tradeoff between efficiency and bandwidth is also presented. A system configuration within the parameter space is fabricated and demonstrated to achieve a data rate of up to 100 kb/s.

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Antennaelastic wavespiezoelectricityultrasonic communication

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Dix, Kevin Jordan [Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000302726457), El-Kady, Ihab Fathy [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)], Erturk, Alper [Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000301105376). 2025-11-14. Piezo-Antenna: An Electromagnetic-Ultrasonic Data Transfer System. https://doi.org/10.1109/tap.2025.3630707

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