High Curie temperature piezoelectric single crystals Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 and their applications in medical ultrasonic transducers

High Cure temperature and larger coercive field ternary Pb(In1/2Nb1/2)O3-Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PIN-PMN-PT or PIMNT) single crystals were grown, while maintain comparable piezoelectric properties with PMN-PT. We have designed and prototyped 1.6MHz ultrasonic transducers based on PIN-PMN-PT single crystals, which can be used in transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography. Compared with PZT-based TCD probe, the two-way insertion loss achieved by PIN-PMN-PT single crystals-based TCD probe is about 4 dB larger. The -6dB bandwidth of PIN-PMN-PT single crystal-based transducer is nearly 10% broader. The improvement of sensitivity and bandwidth of crystal-based probe reveal the great advantages in medical ultrasonic transducers applications. Besides, due to the enhanced beam-mode piezoelectric property of PIN-PMN-PT single crystals, the simulation results of ultrasonic phased array based on PIN-PMN-PT as well as PZT-5H ceramic reveal the significant improvements. The 4dB larger sensitivity, 40% shorter impulse response and 20% broader bandwidth (-6dB) of PIN-PMN-PT single crystal-based will certainly improve medical imaging quality. The PIN-PMN-PT crystals with large size, ultrahigh piezoelectric properties, good thermal stability, and attractive simulation results may become the promising candidate for medical ultrasonic transducers applications.