Ultracoustics
Ultracoustics provides an optical ultrasonic sensor platform that captures acoustic signals up to 5 MHz bandwidth with a 100 µPa/√Hz noise floor, far exceeding conventional ultrasonic microphones. The system uses Fabry-Perot interferometry for non-contact, EMI-immune measurements, and includes a transducer characterization service that returns spatial acoustic field maps and interactive reports.
- Hardware
Funding
Founders
Founder details are not available yet.
Product
Problem
Conventional ultrasonic microphones are limited to roughly 100 kHz bandwidth, missing the high-frequency acoustic emissions critical for advanced transducer characterization, partial discharge detection, and power electronics analysis. Existing electrical sensors are also susceptible to electromagnetic interference and require physical contact, which can alter the measurement itself.
Solution
Ultracoustics offers BROADSONIC, an optical ultrasonic sensor that uses Fabry-Perot interferometry to capture the full 0–5 MHz acoustic band with ~100 µPa/√Hz sensitivity. Laser light travels through a fiber and reflects between mirrors inside a micro-cavity; sound pressure deflects the membrane, shifting the interference pattern to produce a signal. The sensor head is non-contact, operates at standoff distances from millimeters to a few centimeters, and is inherently immune to EMI since it contains no electrical elements. The system streams data in real time over USB at 10 MS/s with 14-bit resolution, and includes software for FFT analysis, trigger-based event capture, and waterfall displays. Ultracoustics also offers a transducer characterization service where users send in their transducers and receive spatial acoustic field maps and interactive reports.
Target Audience
Primary customers are researchers and engineers in transducer development, power electronics, and non-destructive testing, as well as research institutions and industry partners working on high-frequency acoustic sensing and partial discharge detection.
Features
- 5 MHz acoustic bandwidth versus ~100 kHz for conventional ultrasonic microphones, capturing 50× more frequency range
- Fabry-Perot interferometry readout with 100 µm active sensor area and >80 dB dynamic range
- Non-contact measurement with standoff distance from mm to few cm, eliminating sensor-induced perturbations
- EMI-immune optical sensing with no electrical elements in the sensor head
- Real-time USB 2.0 streaming at 10 MS/s with 14-bit ADC and live time-domain/FFT visualization
- Software features include high-sensitivity mode (100× gain), baseline subtraction, trigger-based event capture, and waterfall FFT display
- Transducer characterization service providing spatial acoustic field maps and interactive reports for user-supplied transducers
- SDK available for custom acquisition pipeline integration