Silicon micromachined ultrasonic immersion transducers
Author
Soh, H. T.
Ladabaum, I.
Atalar, Abdullah
Quate, C. F.
Khuri-Yakub, B. T.
Date
1996-12-09Source Title
Applied Physics Letters
Print ISSN
0003-6951
Electronic ISSN
1077-3118
Publisher
A I P Publishing LLC
Volume
69
Issue
24
Pages
3674 - 3676
Language
English
Type
ArticleItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
Broadband transmission of ultrasound in water using capacitive, micromachined transducers is reported. Transmission experiments using the same pair of devices at 4, 6, and 8 MHz with a signal‐to‐noise ratio greater than 48 dB are presented. Transmission is observed from 1 to 20 MHz. Better receiving electronics are necessary to demonstrate operation beyond this range. Furthermore, the same pair of transducers is operated at resonance to demonstrate ultrasound transmission in air at 6 MHz. The versatile transducers are made using siliconsurfacemicromachining techniques. Computer simulations confirm the experimental results and are used to show that this technology promises to yield immersion transducers that are competitive with piezoelectric devices in terms of performance, enabling systems with 130 dB dynamic range. The advantage of the micromachined transducers is that they can be operated in high‐temperature environments and that arrays can be fabricated at lower cost.
Keywords
Signal processingBroadband transmission
Ultrasonics
Chemical elements
Ultrasound
Computer simulation
Piezoelectric devices
Surface micromachining