High-Intensity airborne CMUT transmitter array with beam steering

Abstract

A 2×2 high-intensity CMUT transmit array that is capable of two-dimensional beam steering is presented. The device uses an ac drive voltage at half the ultrasound frequency without any dc bias, enabling the usage of the entire gap height. The device is designed using a large signal equivalent model approach. A fabrication method that requires a single lithographic mask has been used. The fabricated devices are operated at 76 kHz to beam steer at various angles. An equivalent element pressure of 144 dB// 20 μ Pa at the transducer surface was measured. The entire half-space can be steered without any sidelobes and the beam obtained from the array is in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions. [2020-0253]