title: Microscale 1-3-Type (Na,K)NbO(3)-Based Pb-Free Piezocomposites for High-Frequency Ultrasonic Transducer Applications.
abstract: Fine-grained Pb-free (Na(0.535)K(0.485))(0.95)Li(0.05)(Nb(0.8)Ta(0.2))O(3) (NKLNT) piezoceramics prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique was used to fabricate NKLNT/epoxy 1-3 composites with a modified dice-fill method. Because of its good machinability, SPSed NKLNT ceramic rods could be miniaturized to a lateral width of 50 µm. After lapping down to 56 µm in thickness, the composite was used to fabricate an ultrasonic transducer as the active piezoelectric element. This composite transducer showed a bandwidth at -6 dB nearly 90%at a center frequency of 29 MHz, demonstrating that this Pb-free composite thick film is very promising for the fabrication of high-frequency ultrasonic transducers in medical imaging applications.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Zong-Yang
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Jing-Feng
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ruimin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Qifa
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: K Kirk
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Shung