Significant capability gains in areas such as sonar systems and undersea surveillance are being pursued under a new collaborative program involving Australian industry, researchers and Defence scientists.
Projects have commenced in the Advanced Piezoelectric Materials and Applications (APMA) Program under a five-year collaboration between DMTC Limited and its partners, including Defence scientists, to accelerate the development of next-generation piezoelectric materials for defence applications.
According to DMTC, the characteristics of this emerging class of third-generation piezoelectrics in terms of reduced weight and power requirements, and enhanced electro-mechanical interactions, offers the promise of order-of-magnitude capability gains in areas such as undersea surveillance and sonar systems.
In an era of increasingly contested seaways and challenging geopolitical conditions, these capabilities will contribute to Australia’s submarine and undersea capabilities and to maintaining superiority under, on and beyond the sea, the company said in a statement.
Support from Defence’s Next Generation Technologies Fund (NGTF) and StaR Shot missions, managed by Defence Science and Technology Group, is geared towards technology advancement in support of realising the integrated undersea surveillance system capability envisioned in the Defence Strategic Update 2020.
“The aims of this five-year program are twofold – first, to stimulate a robust national research program, and secondly to translate that research into a sovereign industrial capability in the manufacture and application of single crystal piezoelectric materials," a DSTG spokesperson said.
"In the space of five years, we expect measurable outcomes for industry and for academia, and we certainly expect to see the manufacture of single crystal piezoelectrics at scale and under industrial conditions.
"Together, the NGTF and the StaR Shot missions are about ensuring the national S&T enterprise is strengthened and leveraged to achieve scale and focus resources on Defence’s highest S&T priorities, supporting the transition of good technological ideas into capability.”
The APMA Program extends along the entire pipeline from education and training, to research and development, to providing Australian industry with a capability to design and fabricate piezoelectrics for sonars. The Program is making strategic investments in industrial and research infrastructure.
Single crystal forms of piezoelectrics produce enhanced performance due to their microstructure. The first phase of the APMA Program is focused on fully characterising and understanding the properties that will enable piezoelectric technology to be utilised to efficiently produce single crystals of a size required for advanced transducer devices.
This is expected to remove the current reliance on imported single crystal and ensure security of supply for both sovereign Australian and export opportunities.
ANSTO has been a lead researcher in the field of piezoelectrics working with Thales Australia. Universities around Australia have also been brought on board, including UNSW Sydney, the University of Sydney, the University of Wollongong, Monash University, RMIT and the Australian National University.
Australian startup business Critus will work with DMTC to develop piezoelectric characterisation instruments that will provide insights into the structural properties and performance of piezoelectric material samples.
The developments in this area are also expected to translate to enhancements in sensors for aerospace platforms.
“The APMA Program creates an overarching framework through which DMTC will bring together research and funding mechanisms under one umbrella," DMTC CEO, Dr Mark Hodge, said.
"It extends a range of transformative projects that DST Group, DMTC and its partners, including Thales Australia and ANSTO, have been working on for many years."