title: A flexible ultrasound transducer array with micro-machined bulk PZT.
abstract: This paper proposes a novel flexible piezoelectric micro-machined ultrasound transducer, which is based on PZT and a polyimide substrate. The transducer is made on the polyimide substrate and packaged with medical polydimethylsiloxane. Instead of etching the PZT ceramic, this paper proposes a method of putting diced PZT blocks into holes on the polyimide which are pre-etched. The device works in d31 mode and the electromechanical coupling factor is 22.25%. Its flexibility, good conformal contacting with skin surfaces and proper resonant frequency make the device suitable for heart imaging. The flexible packaging ultrasound transducer also has a good waterproof performance after hundreds of ultrasonic electric tests in water. It is a promising ultrasound transducer and will be an effective supplementary ultrasound imaging method in the practical applications.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. wangzhe.thu2012@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. qingtang_xue@163.com.
authors.forename: Qing-Tang
authors.initials: QT
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. chenyq.thu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yuan-Quan
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. shuyithuphy@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. tianh10@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: He
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. yiyang@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. xiedan@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. luo_jianwen@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jian-Wen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. rentl@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Tian-Ling
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Ren
mesh_terms: D002516:Ceramics; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry; D004867:Equipment Design; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011859:Radiography; D014159:Transducers; D014465:Ultrasonics
chemical_list: D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; C013830:baysilon