Single crystal Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3/PbTiO3 (PZN/PT) in medical ultrasonic transducers

Solid solutions of Pb(Zn_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃ (PZN) and PbTiO₃ (PT) have been grown in single crystal form to sizes large enough to permit the fabrication of a 5 MHz phased array. Transducer construction techniques employed differ from standard ceramic arrays. Crystallographic alignment is found to be a significant contributor to piezoelectric performance. The crystal structure and phase diagram play a major role in processing steps requiring heating such as poling and electroding. A complex composite structure is utilized to allow for efficient operation while maintaining structural integrity. The pulse-echo performance and insertion loss of this array are found to be superior to a similarly constructed PZT 5H array