Digital Communication through Solids Using Magnetostriction

Abstract

Digital communication through solid materials such as metals, ceramics, organic solids, or semiconductors has many applications. Only communication through metals has been attempted via ultrasonic waves. However, its performance is significantly hindered by echo interference. A way to enable communication through these solids is by the exploitation of magnetostriction. Magnetostriction is a property where a magnetic material changes its shape during the process of magnetization, essentially converting magnetic energy into kinetic energy. The kinetic energy produced by the magnetic material can then be taken through the solid media through which communication is intended to occur. The kinetic signal on the other side of the solid media could be converted to whatever type of energy is suitable for the application.This energy transduction channel, using magnetic energy and kinetic energy, can optimally be achieved through a soft magnetic material with high magnetostriction. A nickel-iron-cobalt based alloy was used to develop a material with a saturation magnetostriction over 200ppm, that can be electrodeposited out of an acidic aqueous chemistry. Initial high intrinsic stress in the deposited alloy was controlled with additives and altering the complexing, enabling consistent deposits of over a millimeter in thickness.The electrodeposited material’s performance is characterized and correlated to material properties such as alloy composition, microstructure, grain size, coercivity, magnetic saturation, Young’s Modulus, etc. The characterization methods used to analyze the magnetostrictive material and the effect of modulating plating parameters to control material properties will be presented. Additionally, the effect of annealing the material in an inert environment at varying temperatures and dwell times will be examined. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. This paper describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy or the United States Government. SNL is managed and operated by NTESS under DOE NNSA contract DE-NA0003525