This paper presents a system capable of simultaneous high-power and high-data-rate transmission through solid metal barriers using ultrasound. By coaxially aligning a pair of piezoelectric transducers on opposite sides of a metal wall and acoustically coupling them to the barrier, an acoustic- electric transmission channel is formed which prevents the need for physical penetration. Independent data and power channels are utilized, but they are only separated by 25.4 mm to reduce the system's form factor. Commercial off-the-shelf components and evaluation boards are used to create realtime prototype hardware and the full system is capable of transmitting data at 17.37 Mbps and delivering 50 W of power through a 63.5-mm thick steel wall. A synchronous multi-carrier communication scheme (OFDM) is used to achieve a very high spectral efficiency and to ensure that there is only minor interference between the power and data channels. Also presented is a discussion of potential enhancements that could be made to greatly improve the power and data-rate capabilities of the system. This system could have a tremendous impact on improving safety and preserving structural integrity in many military applications (submarines, surface ships, unmanned undersea vehicles, armored vehicles, planes, etc.) as well as in a wide range of commercial, industrial, and nuclear systems.

No abstract

This paper presents a method for two-way ultrasonic communication and power delivery through thick metallic enclosures without physical penetration. Acoustic-electric channels are implemented using a pair of coaxially aligned piezoelectric transducers having 25.4 mm diameters and 1 MHz nominal resonant frequencies, mounted on steel walls having lengths in the range of 57.15 to 304.8 mm. A protocol is described which uses ultrasonic waves to achieve simultaneous bidirectional communication through the metallic enclosures. It is shown that such channels are very frequency selective, and a carrier frequency selection and tracking algorithm is presented to choose a frequency of operation at which both adequate power delivery and reliable full-duplex communication are achieved. Using this algorithm, sufficient power is harvested to allow for the continuous operation of internal electronics which require an aggregate of less than 100 mW. Reliable communication of sensor data is achieved at rates in excess of 30 kbps.

In many commercial, industrial, and military applications, supplying power to electronics through a thick metallic barrier without compromising its structural integrity would provide tremendous advantages over many existing barrier-penetrating techniques. The Faraday shielding presented by thick metallic barriers prevents the use of electromagnetic power-transmission techniques. This work describes the electrical optimization of continuouswave power delivery through thick steel barriers using ultrasound. Ultrasonic channels are formed by attaching pairs of coaxially-aligned piezoelectric transducers to opposite sides of thick steel blocks. The thickness of the steel considered is on the order of, or greater than, one quarter wavelength of the acoustic power signal inside of steel, requiring the use of wave propagation theory to properly analyze the system. A characterization and optimization methodology is presented which measures the linear two-port electrical scattering parameters of the transducersteel-transducer channel. Using these measurements, the simultaneous conjugate impedance-matching conditions at both transducers are calculated, and electrical matching-networks are designed to optimize the power transfer from a 50Ω power amplifier on one side of the steel block to a 50Ω load on the opposite side. In addition, the impacts of, and interactions between, transducer and steel geometries are discussed, and some general guidelines for selecting their relationships are presented. Measurements of optimized systems using transducers designed to resonate at 1 MHz with diameters from 12.7 mm to 66.7 mm, and steel block thicknesses from 9.5 mm to 63.5 mm, reveal power transfer efficiencies as high as 55%, and linear delivery of 81 watts through an optimized channel.

The linear propagation of electromagnetic and dilatational waves through a sandwiched plate piezoelectric transformer (SPPT)-based acoustic-electric transmission channel is modeled using the transfer matrix method with mixed-domain two-port ABCD parameters. This SPPT structure is of great interest because it has been explored in recent years as a mechanism for wireless transmission of electrical signals through solid metallic barriers using ultrasound. The model we present is developed to allow for accurate channel performance prediction while greatly reducing the computational complexity associated with 2- and 3-dimensional finite element analysis. As a result, the model primarily considers 1-dimensional wave propagation; however, approximate solutions for higher-dimensional phenomena (e.g., diffraction in the SPPT's metallic core layer) are also incorporated. The model is then assessed by comparing it to the measured wideband frequency response of a physical SPPT-based channel from our previous work. Very strong agreement between the modeled and measured data is observed, confirming the accuracy and utility of the presented model.