Objective
The expected deliverables have been:
- Improved knowledge of the physico-chemical basis of the crystal growth process
- Improved crystal growth processes, allowing the growth of crystal with high quality volumes greater than 10 cm³
- Improved data for the calculation of the temperature dependence of the sound velocities in different directions
- AT-cut BAW resonators and BVA resonators with high Q values
- A demonstrator of a miniaturised crystal viscosimeter
- A demonstrator of a filter device based on SAWs on GaPO4
- The demonstration, that GaPO4 can be used for a crystal microbalance with high operation temperature
All these objectives and deliverables, except a BVA resonator, have been successfully realised. Most of them have exhibited better properties as initially assumed. The work for the realisation of a BVA resonator had to be cancelled since bva Industries was forced to stop its activities due to financial reasons. Nevertheless the project yields the following results:
- There exist now reliable data on the solubility of GaPO4 in the most important solvents and a much better knowledge of the growth velocities in different solvents and directions, mainly due to the basic research of the University of Montpellier.
- The epitaxy of GaPO4 on quartz has been significantly improved concerning size and quality of the seeds for the first generation crystals by AVL.
- The second generation crystals, grown on GaPO4-seeds have also been increased in size and quality, mainly by reduction of spontaneous cracking by AVL.
- With these improvements, the size of the high quality crystal volumes has been increased by one magnitude from about 1 cm³ to more than 10 cm³ at the end of the project by AVL.
- An interferometric optical system (IISOS) for the in-situ observation of the crystal growth processes has been developed by the University of Genova. This system allows some new observations inside the autoclaves.
- A miniaturised crystal viscosimeter based on AT-cut resonators was developed by Flucon. This offers an on-line control possibility for many important processes in the petro-chemical and chemical industry and for recycling processes, especially for synthetics. This viscosimeter has been tested for the investigation of the change of the viscosities of lube oils for Otto and Diesel engines during operations. It was demonstrated that these results are well above those obtainable with classical rotational viscosimeters.
- BAW resonators with Q values up to 1.2 millions in the fundamental mode have been realised, demonstrating that GaPO4 resonators are at least competitive with the excellent properties of quartz resonators in their main domain, but surpassing this material in coupling and temperature stability.
- A prototype SAW device has been designed and fabricated by TMX on one of the most interesting cuts. The application chosen is an 85 MHz IF CDMA Filter, where large bandwidth, low losses, and small size chip are required. Thanks to GaPO4 properties it was possible to decrease the SMT component size down to 7x5 mm2, which is the smallest SMT component ever, produced for that specification. Performances of the filter are similar to specifications of existing filters on ST Quartz and even better in terms of insertion loss.
Improved simulation programs, more precise data sets of material constants and other tools developed during the project by the different partners, allow a more straightforward development in the different fields in the future.
Single crystals of gallium orthophosphate (GaPO4) are the high tech brothers of quartz crystals, owning all excellent properties of quartz but avoiding its disadvantages. The most outstanding property of GaPO4 is its high thermal stability up to 1200 Kelvin and the much higher coupling constant than quartz. Since these crystals cannot be grown from the melt, the worldwide leading laboratories in the hydrothermal growth of these crystals will cooperate in the RTD, necessary for the growth process. A novel holographic interferometric observation method will be developed and finaly used for in situ observation of the crystal growth inside the autoclaves.
Parallel to this research, the specifications achieveable with this new high tech functional material (2.1.4.M) which is presently not available on the market, will be investigated for representative applications. Demonstrators for the following devices, using bulk acoustic waves (BAW), will be designed, realised and tested:Crystal viscosimeter for process control (2.3.2.S)
BVA resonator tor frequency control,
Microbalance for high operating temperatures (2.3.2.S).
The fundamental properties of surface acoustic waves (SAW) on GaPO4 as substrate will also be investigated and a SAW device, to be defined during the project, will be realised and tested. GaPO4 offers for both types of acoustic waves temperature compensated orientations.
At the end of the project, GaPO4, presently only used for pressure sensors for combustion engines, should become available for other high tech applications, especially suited for SMEs, like the two involved in this project. The crystal viscosimeter will offer an on line control for many important processes in the petro chemical and chemical industry and for recycling processes, especially for synthetics. The viscosity of their melt is the most important quantity for optimised process control, allowing the reduction of raw and waste materials (2.4.1.M). It will also serve for the control of lube oils for aircraft turbines, increasing their security. The microbalance can be used for in situ control in PVD and CVD processes, increasing their efficiency. These few examples show the large economic and ecologic benefits offered by this project. The innovative potential of GaPO4 will improve European's competitiveness on the fast growing markets of sensorics, telemetrics and telecommunication, also contributing to more security of working places and transportation means.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology materials engineering crystals
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering aircraft
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry post-transition metals
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
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Coordinator
8020 GRAZ
Austria
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.