MATRIX: Materials for Transduction

Transductional materials convert energy between different forms or domains, such as thermal to electrical energy, or electric field to magnetic field. Devices fabricated from such materials have multiple DoD-relevant applications that include the following:

• Thermoelectrics (thermal/electric domains) used for energy harvesting, thermal management, and refrigeration;
• Multiferroics (magnetic/electric domains) used in sensors, antennas, actuators, micromotors, tunable RF and microwave components;
• Phase Change Materials (various domains) used in transducers, switches, sensors, and control devices.

While significant progress has been made in advancing transductional material performance for certain applications, gains at the material level have not always translated into new devices and DoD capabilities. The goal of MATRIX is to extend materials breakthroughs to the device and systems level by integrating diverse modeling, design and fabrication communities in a unified research and development effort addressing applications that bridge the material and the device domains. A major program thrust is the development of multiscale, multimodal design and engineering tools that have the potential to accelerate adoption of MATRIX technology into DoD platforms.

Anticipated deliverables from the MATRIX program include materials, devices, and modeling tools that can enable new transduction capabilities with significantly higher performance; lower noise; and smaller size, weight and power than current state-of-the-art technologies.