Advanced transducer materials for ultrasonic imaging probes

This paper presents development results of advanced materials applied to ultrasound arrays. Included in this are multilayer ceramics fabricated using a bonding process, and single crystal materials in both single layer and multilayer forms. Examples of resonator properties measured for these materials are presented. Single crystal arrays modeled using the finite element method (FEM) are compared to KLM modeled and measured. Lastly, a theoretical analysis of the transmit efficiency of arrays fabricated with both "hard" and "soft" PZT piezoceramic materials is compared, including proposed PZT4 multilayers. These should be useful for building high efficiency high power arrays which do not sacrifice imaging performance.