ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,721,040, issued on Aug. 25, was assigned to QUALCOMM Inc. (San Diego).
"Piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) design" was invented by Robert John Littrell (Belmont, Mass.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Aspects include piezoelectric acoustic transducers and systems for acoustic transduction. In some aspects, an acoustic transducer is structured with a silicon substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface, where the top surface has a first portion and an edge along the first portion associated with an acoustic aperture. The transducer has a first silicon oxide layer disposed over the first portion of the top surfac...