Development of a 20-MHz wide-bandwidth PMN-PT single crystal phased-array ultrasound transducer.
In this study, a 20-MHz 64-element phased-array ultrasound transducer with a one-wavelength pitch is developed using a PMN-30%PT single crystal and double-matching layer scheme. High piezoelectric (d33>1000pC/N) and electromechanical coupling (k33>0.8) properties of the single crystal with an optimized fabrication process involving the photolithography technique have been demonstrated to be suitable for wide-bandwidth (⩾70%) and high-sensitivity (insertion loss ⩽30dB) phased-array transducer application. A -6dBbandwidth of 91% and an insertion loss of 29dBfor the 20-MHz 64-element phased-array transducer were achieved. This result shows that the bandwidth is improved comparing with the investigated high-frequency (⩾20MHz) ultrasound transducers using piezoelectric ceramic and single crystal materials. It shows that this phased-array transducer has potential to improve the resolution of biomedical imaging, theoretically. Based on the hypothesis of resolution improvement, this phased-array transducer is capable for small animal (i.e. mouse and zebrafish) studies.
Department of Electrical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Chi-Man
CM
Wong
Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Yan
Y
Chen
Information Materials and Devices Research Center, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China.
Haosu
H
Luo
Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Electronic address: jiyan.dai@polyu.edu.hk.
Jiyan
J
Dai
Department of Electrical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Electronic address: kokokhlam@gmail.com.
Kwok-Ho
KH
Lam
Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Helen Lai-Wa
HL
Chan
D000535:Aluminum / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D002516:Ceramics; D002857:Chromium / Q000737:chemistry; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D014159:Transducers; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation*
D002857:Chromium; D006046:Gold; D000535:Aluminum
High-frequency phased-array; PMN-PT single crystal; Ultrasound transducer