Sensors (Jan 2015)

A Flexible Ultrasound Transducer Array with Micro-Machined Bulk PZT

  • Zhe Wang,
  • Qing-Tang Xue,
  • Yuan-Quan Chen,
  • Yi Shu,
  • He Tian,
  • Yi Yang,
  • Dan Xie,
  • Jian-Wen Luo,
  • Tian-Ling Ren

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s150202538
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 2
pp. 2538 – 2547

Abstract

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This paper proposes a novel flexible piezoelectric micro-machined ultrasound transducer, which is based on PZT and a polyimide substrate. The transducer is made on the polyimide substrate and packaged with medical polydimethylsiloxane. Instead of etching the PZT ceramic, this paper proposes a method of putting diced PZT blocks into holes on the polyimide which are pre-etched. The device works in d31 mode and the electromechanical coupling factor is 22.25%. Its flexibility, good conformal contacting with skin surfaces and proper resonant frequency make the device suitable for heart imaging. The flexible packaging ultrasound transducer also has a good waterproof performance after hundreds of ultrasonic electric tests in water. It is a promising ultrasound transducer and will be an effective supplementary ultrasound imaging method in the practical applications.

Keywords