SNU Prof. Yoon Young Kim’s Team Creates
Supersensitive Ultrasonic Vibration Sensing Technology

- New Prospects in Machine Anomaly Prognosis, Nondestructive Testing, IoT Sensor Technology

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 ▲ (From left) Prof. Yoon Young Kim and researcher Kiyean Kim, SNU Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

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Korean researchers have successfully developed a new technology that amplifies the vibration and ultrasonic signal used in detecting anomalies in machinery or structure.
 

December 13^th, Seoul National University’s College of Engineering (Dean: Kookheon Char) announced that Prof. Yoon Young Kim’s research team from Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has developed a technology that dramatically amplifies sensor signals by attaching a pair of resonators next to the sensors where the ultrasonic vibration sensor is attached.
 

Current technology for amplifying sensor output only deals with the sensor itself, hence the limitations. Instead, the research team came up with a new idea that uses metamaterials to decrease the effective mechanical resistance of the surrounding area where the sensor is attached, thereby amplifying the signal.

The team proved that by applying this new technology to the piezoelectric sensor, which is commonly used in ultrasonic vibration sensing, the signal can be amplified more than 300% compared to the current rate. The technology can be applied to a variety of fields including ultrasonic vibration excitation.
 

“We began from the idea that the mechanical resistance of the sensor’s surroundings can practically be reduced to zero if we attach a misaligned resonator,” said Prof. Kim. “Sensing technology is a core part of IoT. Our technology can potentially influence the field of real-time detection and prognosis of machine anomaly.”
 
The research was published on the December 10^th issues of Nature Communications (Lead author: Kiyean Kim). It was funded by the Center for Advanced Meta-Materials, part of Ministry of Science and ICT’s Global Frontier Project, and the National Research Foundation of Korea.

▲ Super-sensitive ultrasonic transducer. As the longitudinal wave from the piezoelectric transducer in the middle passes through a pair of resonators, it becomes amplified. The experiment showed that the output of the transducer is amplified to be more than 3 times greater (Below).  

Related articles 
 SNU Engineering News https://eng.snu.ac.kr/node/16603
 Veritas Alpha http://www.veritas-a.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=137637