Acoustic Amplification Using Characteristic Geometry-Based Integrated Platforms for Micromechanical Resonant Detection

This paper presents a novel approach to enhance the SNR performance of acoustic wave detection in solids using resonant acoustic devices, particularly those based on photoacoustics, by the manipulation of reflection properties at the interface of two wave propagation media. In contrast to a simple construction, the periphery of the detection platform is designed to match a parametric curvature that reflects the acoustic waves to the geometrical focus where a resonant micromechanical element is fabricated. The approach is validated by time-domain simulations on a platform comprising of an elliptical periphery. The initial experiments conducted with piezo acoustic excitation demonstrate the improvement in the signal amplitude for acoustic waves by an order of magnitude compared to a general case. This method is the first attempt employing the parametric curved geometries as acoustic guides to achieve improved detection sensitivities for micromechanical acoustic wave detection.