Development of 1-3 ceramic-air composite transducers (Invited Paper)

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Abstract
Over the past eight years, 1 - 3 ceramic-polymer composites have come into widespread use as the piezoelectric material in many ultrasonic transducer arrays used for medical imaging. The success of these materials for this application is a result of three major advantages which the composites enjoy over piezoelectric ceramics alone. These are, increased thickness mode coupling, reduced acoustic impedance, and reduced lateral coupling. These three parameters can not all be optimized simultaneously. The engineering trade-offs in the composite design can be avoided if the polymer material is replaced with air. This paper discusses the nature of the trade-offs in the ceramic-polymer material and shows how the use of ceramic-air (air kerf) avoids these limitations. Requirements for good performance in ceramic-air composites are presented and experimental results for a transducer made from a ceramic-air composite are shown. The potential for improvements and the probable limitations for transducers made from air-ceramic composites are discussed.

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