Development of New digital Microphone-MEMS-Sensors for wind tunnels with open/closed test sections and flight tests

Project Information

AEROMIC

Grant agreement ID: 101007958

DOI

10.3030/101007958

Project closed

EC signature date 6 December 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 30 June 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 1 749 710,00

EU contribution

€ 1 399 990,00

Coordinated by

SILICON AUSTRIA LABS GMBH
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AEROMIC (Development of New digital Microphone-MEMS-Sensors for wind tunnels with open/closed test sections and flight tests)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Air traffic still contributes significantly to global warming. In 2018, 3% of global CO2 emissions were attributable to aviation. Besides the air pollution, aircraft also causes noise emissions. This is where the Horizon2020 Clean Sky 2 project AEROMIC comes in: There is a need to develop new technologies to design and manufacture the next generation of aircraft with much better performance – low noise, low consumption, and low emission. AEROMIC contributes important inputs to achieve these goals.
The main objective is to develop novel high performance digital wall-mounted microphone-MEMS-sensors for aeroacoustic measurements for future noise reduced large passenger and other aircrafts. The miniaturized piezoelectric and piezoresistive MEMS microphones with properties exceeding the state-of-the-art in terms of bandwidth, sensitivity, dynamic range, and robustness will be developed to capture the unsteady pressure fluctuations underneath the turbulent boundary layer with very high spatial and temporal resolutions in a very broad frequency range.
These microphones can significantly increase the environmental performance of an aircraft, such as reducing noise emissions and making airplanes more efficient. With this project, we are contributing to sustainable air travel and a clean sky.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The AEROMIC project aims to develop piezoelectric and piezoresistive MEMS microphones for wind tunnel and flight tests, respectively.
The first batch of piezoelectric MEMS microphones have been designed, fabricated, packaged, and characterized for wind tunnel tests. The concept of dual-frequency piezoelectric MEMS microphones has been verified by the preliminary experimental results. The second batch of piezoelectric MEMS microphones have been designed and is ready for microfabrication in cleanroom, at the same time, will also be fabricated with 8-inch wafers in a MEMS foundry.
The first batch of piezoresistive MEMS microphones have been designed and fabricated. The packaging and characterization will be conducted by partners in the AEROMIC consortium. The wind tunnel tests will be conducted after the acoustic characterization.
Two conference papers have been presented and published at the 2022 AIAA SciTech Forum, i.e. Design and modeling of a novel piezoresistive microphone for aero acoustic measurements in laminar boundary layers using FEM and LEM; Design of dual-frequency piezoelectric MEMS microphones for wind tunnel testing. One invited talk, entitled Piezoelectric MEMS for Acoustic and Ultrasonic Applications, will be presented at IEEE ISAF 2022. In addition, the official project website (https://aeromic-cleansky.eu/) has been launched.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The development of piezoelectric and piezoresistive MEMS microphones in the AEROMIC project is beyond the state of the art in terms of key performance parameters such as bandwidth, dynamic range, and sensitivity. In addition, the packaging methods for piezoelectric and piezoresistive MEMS microphones have been optimized for wind tunnel and flight tests. All in all, the final prototypes of flexible microphone arrays are expected to go beyond the state-of-the-art products in terms of the form factor and acoustic performance.
The progress of the AEROMIC project will contribute to the reduction of aviation noises and gas emissions and the implementation of the greener aviation policy. The expected results may include the new-generation MEMS microphones for aeroacoustic applications, and the advanced aeroacoustic measurement technologies based on MEMS microphone arrays. The technical advancement in the AEROMIC project will bring many positive impacts on the environment, society, and economy.

INNO­VA­TION: MICRO­PHONES REDUCING AIRCRAFT NOISE