A comparison between conventional and collapse-mode capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers in 10-MHz 1-D arrays

This paper presents a comprehensive comparison between a collapse-mode and a conventional-mode capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT); both devices have a 1-μm-thick silicon plate and operate at 10 MHz when biased at 100 V. The radii of the circular plates and the gap heights are modified to meet the design specifications required for a fair comparison. Finite element analysis (FEA) shows that the collapse-mode CMUT has higher output pressure sensitivity (46.5 kPa/V) than the conventional CMUT (13.1 kPa/V), and achieves a 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 124% compared with 128% for the conventional mode. These results were validated by experiments performed on devices fabricated in a 1-D phased array configuration using the local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS)/wafer-bonding process. The measured output pressure sensitivity and the FBW of the collapse-mode and the conventional CMUTs at 100 V were 26.4 kPa/V and 103% and 12.7 kPa/V and 111%, respectively. The maximum output pressure of the collapse-mode CMUT was 1.19 MPa at 10 MHz, which was much higher than the conventional CMUT (0.44 MPa). However, the second harmonic distortion (SHD) level of the collapse-mode CMUT is higher than the conventional CMUT at the same excitation condition. Even with higher electric field in the cavity, the collapse-mode CMUT was as stable as the conventional CMUT in a long-term test. A 30-h test with a total of 3.2 × 10⁹ cycles of 30 V ac excitation resulted in no significant degradation in the performance of the collapse-mode devices.