Abstract
In ultrasonic medical imaging it is desirable to have a focused beam with maximum sensitivity along the transmission axis. One way to suppress the intensity of side lobes which impairs the image quality, is to introduce a ceramic volume fraction gradient (VFG) in a piezoelectric composite. Sanders Prototyping (SP) was used to fabricate a variety of 2-2 PZT-5H/Spurr epoxy composites with linear, gaussian and exponential gradients. Based on the modeling results and vibration profiles, the linear 2-2 gradient showed the lowest off-axis sensitivity. Fused Deposition of Ceramics (FDC) was also used to build curved piezoelectric composite transducers for focusing the beam in medical imaging applications. These composites had good electromechanical properties with a kt of 68% and an average d33 of 400 pC/N. The processing and electromechanical properties of the VFG and curved composite transducers are discussed in this paper.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 615-618 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium |
| Volume | 1 |
| State | Published - 1998 |
| Event | Proceedings of the 1998 International Ultrasonics Symposium - Sendai, Miyagi, Jpn Duration: Oct 5 1998 → Oct 8 1998 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Acoustics and Ultrasonics