A new algorithm for spatial impulse response of rectangular planar transducers

Previous solutions for spatial impulse responses of rectangular planar transducers require either approximations or complex geometrical considerations. This paper describes a new, simplified and exact solution using only trigonometric functions and simple set operations. This solution, which can be numerically implemented with a straightforward algorithm, is an exact implementation of the Rayleigh integral without any far field or paraxial approximation. Additionally, a nonlinear relationship was also established for spatial impulse responses from two field points which share the same projection point on the transducer surface plane. By incorporating this relationship in the algorithm, the computational efficiency of spatial impulse responses and continuous fields is improved about 20-folds and 14-folds, respectively. This algorithm has practical applications in designing l-D linear/phased arrays, 1.5-D arrays and 2-D arrays, as demonstrated through numerical simulations with array transducers. Experiments were also conducted to verify the new solution and results show that the algorithm is both accurate and efficient. The application of this method may include development of ultrasound imaging system for hard and soft tissue nondestructive assessment.     

一种精确计算换能器空间脉冲响应的快速方法

空间脉冲响应被认为是最有效的瞬态声场计算方法,针对空间脉冲响应直接计算时需要很高的采样频率,导致数据量大、计算效率差的问题,推导了空间点与其在换能器平面的投影点脉冲响应之间的关系,提出了一种计算脉冲响应的快速算法,探讨了计算采样频率和插值采样频率对计算精度和计算效率的影响,研究发现,采用1000 MHz采样频率能够保证精度要求,采用500 MHz作为插值时的采样频率是较优的选择。该方法与直接求解相比,可提高计算效率18倍。     

一种精确计算换能器空间脉冲响应的快速方法

空间脉冲响应被认为是最有效的瞬态声场计算方法,针对空间脉冲响应直接计算时需要很高的采样频率,导致数据量大、计算效率差的问题,推导了空间点与其在换能器平面的投影点脉冲响应之间的关系,提出了一种计算脉冲响应的快速算法,探讨了计算采样频率和插值采样频率对计算精度和计算效率的影响,研究发现,采用1000 MHz采样频率能够保证精度要求,采用500 MHz作为插值时的采样频率是较优的选择。该方法与直接求解相比,可提高计算效率18倍。     

A spatial impulse response based method for determining effective geometrical parameters for spherically focused transducers

This paper proposes a novel method for determining effective geometrical parameters (GPs) of spherically focused transducer. Theoretical basis of the method is the spatial impulse response method (SIRM) that is a powerful tool to calculate transient fields from a piston-like transducer. Experimentally, the method is implemented by measuring arrival times of the pulse signals (either transmission or pulse echo signals) and using them to determine the time intervals between the direct and edge wave pulses. Since the time intervals for a given measurement position depend on the transducer's GPs, then the effective GPs can be obtained. The measurements are carried out in the near-field so that the time intervals can be resolved. The proposed method has been applied to a spherically focused transducer operating in pulse echo mode. The results have shown that the effective GPs used in the SIRM give a closer agreement between the theory and the measurements than the nominal GPs. The method is best suited for characterizing broadband transducers with short pulse excitations. With certain modification it can be also applied to narrowband transducers. The method can be also applied to transducers of other shapes, e.g., planar circle, and planar or curved rectangle provided the piston approximation is appropriate.     

超声探头的响应特性及暂态回波模型

建立检测系统的数学模型,可以更好地理解超声检测的物理本质。分析了超声波从产生、介质中传播、缺陷耦合以及接收的全过程,将缺陷回波表示为探头响应函数与缺陷响应的时域卷积。利用空间脉冲响应和基尔霍夫近似建立了超声波与平面型缺陷的耦合模型,用大平面试块底面回波和大平面响应进行反卷积求得了探头的响应函数,并详细分析了探头在不同偏置位置时不同大小缺陷响应的特点,发现缺陷回波由直达回波和边缘回波组成,直达回波和边缘回波极性相反,且直达回波的幅值远远大于边缘回波。     

A miniature pulser-preamplifier for ultrasonic transducers

In order to avoid difficulties experienced with conventional ultrasonic systems using several feet of shielded cable to connect transducer and electronics, a miniature pulser-preamplifier was developed to fit the transducer holder. Its characteristics proved superior to most devices in common use.     

Nonlinear electromechanical response of the ferroelectret ultrasonic transducers

The ultrasonic transmission between two air-coupled polypropylene (PP) ferroelectret (FE) transducers in dependence on the amplitude of the high-voltage exciting pulse revealed a strongly nonlinear electromechanical response of the FE transmitter. This phenomenon is described by a linear increase of the inverse electromechanical transducer constant t₃₃⁽¹⁾t_{33}^{(1)} of the PP FE film with an increase of the exciting electrical pulse amplitude. Enlargement of t₃₃⁽¹⁾t_{33}^{(1)} by a factor of 4 was achieved by application of 3500 V exciting pulses. The electrostriction contribution to t₃₃⁽¹⁾t_{33}^{(1)} can be attributed to the electrostatic force between electrodes and the Maxwell stress effect. The nonlinear electromechanical properties of the PP FE result in a strong increase of its air-coupled ultrasonic (ACUS) figure of merit (FOM) under the high-voltage excitation, which exceeds results of the PP FE technological optimization. The FOM increase can be related to the increase of PP FE coupling factor and/or to the decrease of its acoustic impedance. A significant enhancement of the ACUS system transmission (12 dB) and signal-to-noise ratio (32 dB) was demonstrated by the increase of excitation voltage up to 3500 V. The nonlinear electromechanical properties of the PP FEs seem to be very important for their future applications.     

Optimization of ultrasonic transducers

The so-called KLM-model for ultrasonic transducers is employed to optimize transducer design. Some new performance characteristics are defined which change monotonically with design parameters. These characteristics are based on the area of the envelope of the echo waveform produced by the transducer and of the corresponding amplitude spectrum. The efficiency of the transducer is defined by the round trip energy factor. The performance characteristics are used in a composite performance measure, which is then employed as a criterion in the optimization procedure. Two transducers are investigated: for medical imaging purposes and for spectral analysis of clinical echograms. The influence of electrical matching, backing impedance, matching layer impedance, bond line thickness and series induction on the optimized transducers is investigated.     

Plate impulse response spatial interpolation with sub-Nyquist sampling

Impulse responses of vibrating plates are classically measured on a fine spatial grid satisfying the Shannon-Nyquist spatial sampling criterion, and interpolated between measurement points. For homogeneous and isotropic plates, this study proposed a more efficient sampling and interpolation process, inspired by the recent paradigm of compressed sensing. Remarkably, this method can accommodate any star-convex shape and unspecified boundary conditions. Here, impulse responses are first decomposed as sums of damped sinusoids, using the Simultaneous Orthogonal Matching Pursuit algorithm. Finally, modes are interpolated using a plane wave decomposition. As a beneficial side effect, these algorithms can also be used to obtain the dispersion curve of the plate with a limited number of measurements. Experimental results are given for three different plates of different shapes and boundary conditions, and compared to classical Shannon interpolation.     

A calculation scheme for the optimum design of ultrasonic transducers

A calculation scheme that establishes the transfer functionof a thickness-mode piezoelectric transducer is described. A computer program enables flexible manipulation of the design. Parameters that can be inserted are the properties of the piezo-material, the quarter-wavelength layer(s), the backing load and the electrical tuning and matching.Optimization criteria such as maximum bandwidth, optimum dynamic range, minimum pulse duration and minimum round-trip insertion loss (or maximum efficiency) are discussed.     

A multiscale model for array of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers

A model is developed for studying the acoustic behavior of a cMUT array. This model is based on separate calculations of the terms describing the behavior of a single cMUT on one hand, and those corresponding to acoustic mutual coupling on the other hand. The terms are combined into an equivalent circuit with matrix terms which displays only one degree of freedom per cell. This approach allows the simulation of several dozen cMUTs considered individually with a very short computer time. A Finite Difference model is used for the simulation of an isolated cell radiating acoustic energy and the determination of its equivalent electromechanical circuit. It is shown for various mutual coupling situations that the coupling between cells can be correctly approximated using a very simple mutual impedance term. The model is compared with experimental results, using a set of different cMUT configurations. Experimental results were obtained with electrical impedancemetry and laser interferometry techniques performed in fluid immersion.     

热疗用聚焦超声换能器的研究

本文通过数值计算及实际测量,研究了凹球面声透镜聚焦换能器及凹球面自聚焦换能器产生的声场,证实此两种聚焦方式均可获得理想的聚焦效果,但自聚焦方式更适合高强度聚焦超声(HIFU)加热治疗。     

Piezoelectric multilayer transducers for ultrasonic pulse compression

This paper describes piezoelectric multilayer transducers for application in ultrasonic pulse compression systems. The transducers are constructed in such a way as to produce binary pulse sequences, in particular Barker-coded sequences. This is achieved by the polarization pattern of the active layers. Pulse compression is effected without any electronic circuitry by using a receiver transducer with a pattern corresponding to that of the transmitter.     

A comparison of two methods for determining ultrasonic intensity for medical transducers

The spatial and temporal average intensity (ISATA) is determined for four diagnostic ultrasound transducers by two methods: (a) direct measurements (beam profiling) with a miniature hydrophone, as described in the AIUM-NEMA standard, and (b) estimating from measurements of total power and assumptions about beam size. The latter method is frequently used by diagnostic ultrasound manufacturers when reporting output levels to users and regulatory agencies. However, due to the conventions for defining beam area, this method actually overestimates the spatial average intensity. For the four transducers tested, the estimated ISATA exceeds the measured ISATA by several hundred percent. The spatial peak, temporal average intensity (ISPTA) was also measured for the four transducers and is less than the estimated ISATA in every case.     

Magnetically tunable ultrasonic transducers for shear waves

Single crystal platelets of FeBO₃ are used as magnetoelastically excited shear wave transducers in the 10–100MHz region. Due to a strong dependence of the elastic stiffness on an applied magnetic dc field the resonance frequency is magnetically tunable in a region of about 25 percent around the centre frequency. A pulse-echo experiment was used to compare the conversion efficiencies of the FeBO₃ transducer and a conventional quartz transducer. The insertion losses were found to be approximately equal for both transducers and in accordance with the calculated values.     

Step excitation source for ultrasonic pulse transducers

A circuit is described for exciting ultrasonic transducers by step discharge through avalanching transistors. While a free-running mode is possible, the circuit is designed for synchronous operation at 1 and 10 kHz repetition rates. During the receive mode the transducer is decoupled from the power source. The output is obtained from a buffer amplifier to match a 50 Ω coaxial cable. The circuit described produces a 250 V step discharge into a 24 pf load in 10 ns.     

Model-based optimization of ultrasonic transducers

Numerical simulation and automated optimization of Langevin-type ultrasonic transducers are investigated. These kind of transducers are standard components in various applications of high-power ultrasonics such as ultrasonic cleaning and chemical processing. Vibration of the transducer is simulated numerically by standard finite element method and the dimensions and shape parameters of a transducer are optimized with respect to different criteria. The novelty value of this work is the combination of the simulation model and the optimization problem by efficient automatic differentiation techniques. The capabilities of this approach are demonstrated with practical test cases in which various aspects of the operation of a transducer are improved.     

Nonlinear mechanical behavior of piezocomposites for ultrasonic transducers

A comparative study is carried out between the nonlinear behavior of a composite and the piezoceramic used to obtain it. This characterization is necessary for using the composite in power transducer applications. A study of the losses and the resonator stiffness variations has also been done. Both these effects, as well as the possibility of the frequency hysteresis, show different behavior in the composites, since the increases in the ceramics are different from those in the composites. In this study two measurement methods are used: principally the motional impedance increase with the motional current measurements. The results obtained are normalized in order to make them independent of the resonator size, and thus make the comparison between the composite and the ceramic easier. The figure of the mechanical loss tangent tan delta m versus the mean strain shows that the losses can be greater in the ceramic than in the composite for soft ceramics. The dependence behavior of the losses and stiffness variations versus the mean strain is studied for both resonators.     

The development of recent high-power ultrasonic transducers for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology

With the reduction of crude oil throughout the world, enhance oil recovery technology has become a major oil research topics, which can greatly increase the recovery ratio of the crude oil before the dawning of renewable energy era. Near-well ultrasonic processing technology, as one new method, has attracted more attention for Enhanced Oil Recovery due to its low cost, good applicability and no environmental pollution in recent rears. There are two important relevant aspects about Near-well ultrasonic processing technology: (a) how to enhance the oil flow through the rocks into the pumping pool and (b) how to reduce the oil viscosity so that it can be easier to pump. Therefore, how to design a high-power ultrasonic equipment with excellent performance is crucial for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology. In this paper, recent new high-power ultrasonic transducers for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology are summarized. Each field application of them are also given. The purpose of this paper is to provide reference for the further development of Near-well ultrasonic processing technology.With the reduction of crude oil throughout the world, enhance oil recovery technology has become a major oil research topics, which can greatly increase the recovery ratio of the crude oil before the dawning of renewable energy era. Near-well ultrasonic processing technology, as one new method, has attracted more attention for Enhanced Oil Recovery due to its low cost, good applicability and no environmental pollution in recent rears. There are two important relevant aspects about Near-well ultrasonic processing technology: (a) how to enhance the oil flow through the rocks into the pumping pool and (b) how to reduce the oil viscosity so that it can be easier to pump. Therefore, how to design a high-power ultrasonic equipment with excellent performance is crucial for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology. In this paper, recent new high-power ultrasonic transducers for Near-well ultrasonic processing technology are summarized. Each field application of them are also given. The purpose of this paper is to provide reference for the further development of Near-well ultrasonic processing technology