Marie Nakazawa

Multilayered Transducers Using Polyurea Film

We have been investigating ultrasonic transducers using a polyurea piezoelectric material, which is fabricated by vapor deposition. To enhance the transducer performance, a multilayered configuration is studied in this work. First, the fabrication and transducer design of the multilayered structure are described. A special twin-vacuum chamber is used for laminating the polyurea layers and aluminum electrodes alternately without breaking vacuum. We fabricate two- and four-layered transducers with 1.5 µm polyurea films. The calculation results show that the force factor and electromechanical coupling coefficient increase as the number of layers increases. Second, to evaluate the transducer performance, we measure the electromechanical coupling factors and electric admittances. The coupling coefficients also increase as the number of layers increases at the resonant frequencies of about 30, 65, and 100 MHz. The pulse/echo measurements are conducted to determine the transmission and receiving characteristics using a reflector. The results of the experiment show that the voltage amplitudes of the received signal increase because of multilayer lamination.

Three-Axis Acceleration Sensor Using Polyurea Films

Focusing on the possibilities of polyurea as an acceleration sensor with characteristics such as flexibility, durability against large deformation, good linearity, and capability of deposition in dryprocess and insolubility in organic solvent, we first fabricated a cantilever acceleration sensor and a three-axis acceleration sensor. The output voltage in the large-strain region is measured using a polyurea cantilever sensor attached to a beryllium copper substrate. The results show that output voltages have good linearity for large strains up to 1%. This value is much larger than the breakdown limit of lead zirconate titanate. Second, we fabricated a polyurea three-axis acceleration sensor. The sensor consists of an insulation layer of polyurea on the cross beam substrate of phosphor bronze, a bottom aluminum electrode, a polyurea active layer, and four top aluminum electrodes. The experimental results for harmonic acceleration show that the sensor works as expected. The cross-axis sensitivity of the polyurea sensor was less than 8%, which is close to that of conventional microelectromechanical system sensors.

Polyurea Thin Film Ultrasonic Transducers for Nondestructive Testing and Medical Imaging

Ultrasonic transducers using polyurea piezoelectric thin film are studied in this paper. Aromatic polyurea thin films, prepared by vapor deposition polymerization, have useful characteristics for use as an ultrasonic transducer. This paper presents the fabrication and experimental evaluation of ultrasonic transducers formed using polyurea films. First, the vapor deposition polymerization process using two monomers is briefly reviewed, and the temperature conditions for higher piezoelectric constants are explored. Second, in order to test the fundamental characteristics of this material as a high-frequency, ultrasonic transducer, a polyurea film of 2.5 mum thickness was deposited on a silicon substrate. In the pulse/echo experiment results, a resonant frequency of about 100 MHz was observed. Third, we fabricated a concave point focus transducer and a cylindrical line focus transducer. To examine the performances of the focus transducers, two-dimensional images of a coin and V(z) curve measurements for an aluminum surface were demonstrated.

Numerical Analysis of Ultrasonic Beam of Variable-Line-Focus-Beam Film Transducer

In this study, the characteristics of an ultrasonic beam radiated by a variable-line-focus-beam transducer were numerically calculated by finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method and liquid-elastic wave reflection theory. The interference ripple caused by a leaky surface acoustic wave (SAW) was observed in the lens width vs received intensity curve. Reasonable results, the true-circle-arc-lens in the literature, were obtained. As in the conventional V(z) curve, the ripple changed according to the attenuation parameter α and the leaky SAW velocity. Unlike for the conventional true-circle-arc-lens, the ripples caused by the leaky SAWs are observed at both sides of the focal point.

Measurement of Surface Acoustic Wave Velocity Using a Variable-Line-Focus Polyurea Thin-Film Ultrasonic Transducer

This paper presents the novel measurement method of the surface acoustic wave velocity by the variableline-focus transducer using a polyurea piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer. First, a multiresonant polyurea thin-film ultrasonic transducer is fabricated by the vapor deposition polymerization process using 2 monomers. Second, the measurement system of surface acoustic wave velocity modified from the V(z) curve method is established. The system uses the fabricated polyurea thin film as a variable-line-focus transducer at the 30-MHz resonance frequency. The focal length is changed by varying the radius of curvature of the film transducer. To estimate the surface acoustic wave velocities from the measured data theoretically, the photographs of the transducer bent shapes are taken by using a digital microscope, and the bent transducer curvature is modeled by the 7th-order polynomial. To examine the performances of the variable-line-focus transducer, the surface acoustic wave velocities of an aluminum and a synthesized silica glass specimen have been measured. The measured surface acoustic velocities showed good agreement with the reference values.

Development of Sound Localization System with Tube Earphone Using Human Head Model with Ear Canal

In this study, we propose a new acoustic model including the human ear canal and a thin tube earphone. The use of a tube earphone enables simultaneous listening of both virtual and real surrounding sound. First, we perform acoustic FDTD (finite difference time domain) simulations using an MRI head model with ear canals. The calculated external impedance viewed from the eardrum numerically shows that the influence of the inserted tube is small. A listening experiment with six subjects also confirms the effectiveness of a tube earphone. Second, we calculate HRTFs (head-related transfer functions) for eight directions in the horizontal plane to realize sound localization with a tube earphone. We also design inverse filters based on the propagation calculations including the characteristics of tube earphones. Finally we evaluate the localization system by another listening experiment with six subjects. The results reveal that the applicability of a system with tube earphones and inverse filters, particularly for the front directions.

A high frequency variable focus ultrasonic transducer using polyurea thin film

Ultrasonic transducers using aromatic polyurea piezoelectric thin film are studied in this report. Polyurea thin film is deposited with vapor deposition polymerization with an optimum temperature condition. First, polyurea thin film of 5 µm in thickness was deposited on a Si substrate, and it showed resonant frequency of 156 MHz. Second, we made a concave point focus transducer, a cylindrical line focus transducer, and a variable focus transducer. We obtained images of staple using the concave point focusing transducer. Finally, we measured the V(z) curve of aluminum surface by the cylindrical line focus transducer.

Thickness design, fabrication, and evaluation of 100-MHz polyurea ultrasonic transducer

In this paper, we present a polyurea transducer that works at 100 MHz under water. The transducer was designed using an equivalent circuit model so that an aluminum (top)-polyurea-aluminum (bottom)-polyimide layer had a resonant frequency of 100 MHz and output sound pressure became maximum at that frequency. The thicknesses of the top aluminum electrode, polyurea, and bottom aluminum electrode were determined to be 3.3, 3.5, and 1.7 μm, respectively. A 100-MHz polyurea transducer with the designed thickness was fabricated using deposition equipment. To evaluate the performance of the designed and fabricated polyurea transducer, transmission-reception experiments with pulsed and burst waves were carried out. The results show that transmitting and receiving ultrasounds at a frequency of 100 MHz are possible as expected with the thickness design. To evaluate actual use, B-mode imaging of an onion was also performed using the transducer, which was formed into a line-focused shape. The result shows that the outer layer of the onion, of 0.1 to 0.2 mm thickness, was successfully imaged.

Experimental study of underwater transmission characteristics of high-frequency 30 MHz polyurea ultrasonic transducer

In this paper, we present the transmission characteristics of a polyurea ultrasonic transducer operating in water. In this study, we used a polyurea transducer with fundamental resonance at approximately 30 MHz. Firstly, acoustic pressure radiated from the transducer was measured using a hydrophone, which has a diameter of 0.2 mm. The transmission characteristics such as relative bandwidth, pulse width, and acoustic sensitivity were calculated from the experimental results. The results of the experiment showed a relative bandwidth of 50% and a pulse width of 0.061 μs. The acoustic sensitivity was 0.60 kPa/V with good linearity, where the correlation coefficient R in the fitting calculation was 0.996. A maximum pressure of 13.1 kPa was observed when the transducer was excited at a zero-to-peak voltage of 21 V. Moreover, we experimentally verified the results. The results of the pulse/echo experiment showed that the estimated diameters of the copper wires were 458 and 726 μm, where the differences between the actual and measured values were 15% and 4%, respectively. Acoustic streaming was also observed so that a particle velocity map was estimated by particle image velocimetry (PIV). The sound pressure calculated from the particle velocity obtained by PIV showed good agreement with the acoustic pressure measured using the hydrophone, where the differences between the calculated and measured values were 12-19%.

A 100-MHz 32-array transducer using lithographically-made electrodes and vapor-deposited polyurea film

100-MHz 32-array ultrasonic transducers using polyurea thin film are fabricated and tested experimentally in this paper. The polyurea film is prepared through vapor deposition polymerization, and miniature array electrodes are made with the use of lithographic techniques. Array transducers are prototyped in two different types of configurations. A resonant frequency of about 100 MHz was observed in the electrical admittance. Beam steering experiments and pulse/echo tests were carried out using the prototyped transducers.