Broad-band and high-temperature ultrasonic transducer fabricated using a Pb(In(1∕2)Nb(1∕2))-Pb(Mg(1∕3)Nb(2∕3))-PbTiO3 single crystal∕epoxy 1-3 composite.

In this paper, 1-3 composites based on Pb(In(1∕2)Nb(1∕2))-Pb(Mg(1∕3)Nb(2∕3))-PbTiO(3) (PIMNT) single crystal and high-temperature epoxy were fabricated with various volume fractions of PIMNT single crystal ranging from 0.4 to 0.9. The electrical properties were studied as functions of PIMNT volume fraction and temperature, and it revealed that the nature of ultrahigh electromechanical coupling coefficient (0.82-0.93) and low acoustic impedance (17-19 MRayl) of the composites can be retained within a wide temperature range from room temperature to 185 °C. Single element ultrasonic transducer using the PIMNT 1-3 composite was fabricated and characterized as a function of temperature. It was found that the transducer can still work normally at high temperatures, such as 165 °C, possessing a bandwidth of 95% and insertion loss of -27 dB.

Fabrication and performance of endoscopic ultrasound radial arrays based on PMN-PT single crystal/epoxy 1-3 composite.

In this paper, 0.7Pb(Mg(¹/3)Nb(²/3)O3-0.3PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single crystal/epoxy 1/3 composite was used as the active material of the endoscopic ultrasonic radial array transducer, because this composite exhibited ultrahigh electromechanical coupling coefficient (k(t) = 0.81%), very low mechanical quality factor (Q(m) = 11) and relatively low acoustic impedance (Z(t) = 12 MRayls). A 6.91 MHz PMN-PT/epoxy 1/3 composite radial array transducer with 64 elements was tested in a pulseecho response measurement. The -6-dB bandwidth of the composite array transducer was 102%, which was ~30% larger than that of traditional lead zirconate titanate array transducer. The two-way insertion loss was found to be -32.3 dB. The obtained results show that this broadband array transducer is promising for acquiring high-resolution endoscopic ultrasonic images in many clinical applications.