Quantifying the effect of subdicing on element vibration in ultrasound transducers

In ultrasound imaging, one of the challenges of transducer design is to maximize the acoustic energy that is radiated into the medium. The geometry of the transducer elements is one of the major aspects that affects the transmit efficiency. In this study we apply simulations to investigate the effect of subdicing on the transmit performance of an ultrasound linear array transducer. We focus on the influence of subdicing on the average emitted pressure, surface velocity and radiation impedance of linear arrays with variable element widths. The simulations are performed using the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software PZFlex (Weidlinger Associates, Los Altos, CA) and the results obtained show the improvement in transmit performance when subdicing elements having a width above 0.6λ.