UC Berkeley

This paper reports a 9-meter-long ultrasonic 3D detector based on a packaged lithium niobate PMUTs (piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers). Compared with the state-of-the-art reports, three distinctive achievements have been demonstrated: (1) high uniformity and wide bandwidth PMUTs by optimized package designs for highly efficient ultrasonic energy transfer; (2) a long-range receiving beamforming detection scheme on a 4×4 PMUT array for up to 9 m detection rang - comparable to the longest reported range via PMUTs; and (3) 3D detection of multiple static/moving objects with the field of view exceeding 50°. As such, this device is valuable for various applications such as obstacle avoidance when both low power consumption and small form factor are desirable, including aerial drones.