Phoenix Research and Development
Phoenix have access to a broad range of skills and facilities that can be deployed in research and development work in areas related to existing Phoenix activities. Over the past few years Phoenix have put together project teams with skills covering systems engineering, software, materials engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and electronic engineering. We are able to take advantage of our own testing capabilities and equipment but can also draw upon the resources of a significant technical network in the NSW region.
Gold nano Particle Hydrophone Research
Phoenix recently executed a 2 year technology development contract for the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) into the use of gold nano particle strain gauges in sensor technology such as hydrophones and vector sensors. The strain response of a gold nano-particle strain gauge is many times that of a traditional foil type strain gauge. This opens the potential for such technology to be used in sensors and offers the possibility of building sensors that that are significantly smaller and very significantly cheaper than existing sensor technology. Furthermore the technology has the potential to offer designers the ability to conceive and build sensor structures that are beyond the capability existing technologies. The team were able to overcome fundamental fabrication challenges in creating useable strain guages with repeatable performance. They developed and tested several hydrophone designs utilising these gauges and demonstrated the feasibility of the use of gold nano particle sensors in hydrophones. Analysis of the strain guage using Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV) revealed that the strain gauges were significantly more sensitive than expected suggesting that further development in hydrophone design would yield a useful 1mm scale hydrophone.
Theoretical model electron tunneling through nano particles under strain.
LDV of nano particle sensor film
Prototype Hydrophone Test Rig
Prortype Hydrophone Array
Atomic Force Microscopy Image of a gold nano particle film.
