Aura
Non-invasive ultrasound diagnostics
Ultrasound can look where no camera or sensor can reach — inside a sealed barrel, into a pipe with liquid flowing through it, beneath the surface of a material. Aura is our research project: a programmable ultrasound platform that serves industrial measurement today from a single hardware and firmware core — and opens the way to medical applications tomorrow.
At its foundation is a phased array of transducers: dozens to hundreds of tiny emitters, each firing with a precisely computed delay. The waves add up at the target point and form a focus — an ultrasound beam steered purely electronically, with no moving parts. Depending on the mounted probe and application profile, the same core then measures liquid layers in vessels, monitors liquid purity in pipelines, or detects foreign objects in sealed packaging. Industry is our first step: real-world tasks where the platform can prove itself and pay its way.
Technology
Development runs on a programmable research platform with per-channel phase and amplitude control (256 transmit channels, frequencies up to 20 MHz) and an open SDK. The firmware kernel computes delay laws for focusing and beamforming, a sequencer drives transmission and reception, and a safety monitor watches the limits. Probes are an interchangeable front end — from low-frequency focused transducers to high-frequency immersion arrays for the finest particles.
The brief
Industrial liquid inspection keeps hitting the physical limits of its sensors: optical windows fog up, cameras get coated in grime, electrodes drift. Ultrasound has none of these problems — it needs no window and no contact with the medium from the inside. But off-the-shelf ultrasound solutions are either laboratory giants or single-purpose probes. What's missing is a flexible platform that can be retuned from one task to another. That's what we are building.
The solution
We work honestly, starting from the physics: we first validate tasks on a research platform with an open SDK and commercial probes. Our own hardware comes only once demand is proven. The architecture is layered — a shared core with focus computation and a sequencer, interchangeable probes for different frequencies and media above it, and application profiles for specific tasks on top. The safety limiter, which watches intensity and temperature, is designed as an inviolable layer — not an optional add-on. The same discipline we build software with, carried over into acoustics.
Key features
- electronically steered focus with no moving parts (phased array)
- one HW/FW core, interchangeable probes and application profiles
- measuring liquid layers and purity, and detecting objects in sealed vessels
- a safety limiter for intensity and temperature as an inviolable layer
- commercial probes first, custom hardware only once the tasks are proven
- long-term vision: non-invasive medical applications on the same core
Results & benefits
- an active R&D program with a clear staged strategy (industry → medicine)
- industrial tasks defined with real-world partners
- know-how in focused ultrasound built our own way
- proof that Oidis handles deep tech too: physics, HW, FW and safety in one
