IC2 was recently awarded a NASA Phase 1 SBIR, titled “Advanced Phased Array Instrumentation and Processing for Engine Inlet Measurements,” to create novel phased-array instrumentation and processing for aircraft engine-inlet acoustic measurements. IC2 will partner with OptiNav, leveraging their expertise in microphone array processing.

From the project abstract, “High channel-count, high-density, reduced cost-per-channel microphone arrays, using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) piezoelectric microphones with backside contacts and advanced packaging technology, will be integrated into model-scale inlet design/build efforts to revolutionize engine-inlet array-measurement capabilities through increases in array density and channel count while significantly reducing the cost per channel. These measurement advances will be coupled with development of advanced processing techniques to take full advantage of the enhanced measurement capabilities, including handling of the three-dimensional (3D) problem related to non-uniform inlet geometries.”