Novel silicon nitride micromachined wide bandwidth ultrasonic transducers

Author

Noble, R.A. ; Bozeat, R.J. ; Robertson, T.J. ; Billson, D.R. ; Hutchins, D.A.

Author_Institution

DERA, Malvern, UK

Volume

2

fYear

1998

fDate

1998

Firstpage

1081

Abstract

Silicon micromachined ultrasonic devices have been fabricated using a CMOS-compatible process. Devices of up to 1 mm in size have been tested, with silicon nitride membranes of 1 μm and 2 μm thickness. The work has investigated the response of these ultrasonic receivers, as a function of membrane thickness and lateral dimensions. It is shown that the resultant surface micromachined transducers can operate over a wide bandwidth in air, without the resonant behaviour associated with previous devices

Keywords

membranes; micromachining; microsensors; silicon compounds; ultrasonic transducers; 1 mm; 1 to 2 mum; CMOS-compatible process; Si₃N₄; air; lateral dimensions; membrane thickness; micromachined ultrasonic devices; silicon nitride membranes; silicon nitride micromachined wide bandwidth ultrasonic transducers; surface micromachined transducers; ultrasonic receivers; wide bandwidth; Bandwidth; Biomembranes; Frequency; Micromachining; Polymers; Resonance; Silicon; Substrates; Surface topography; Ultrasonic transducers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Ultrasonics Symposium, 1998. Proceedings., 1998 IEEE

Conference_Location

Sendai

ISSN

1051-0117

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4095-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ULTSYM.1998.765017

Filename

765017