Abstract
BaTiO3 (BTO) ceramics were fabricated based on stereolithography technology. The microstructures and electric properties of the BTO ceramics were studied. X-ray patterns of sintered BTO ceramics indicated that the tetragonal phase had formed, and the grain size increased clearly as BTO weight percentage increased. Moreover, the BTO ceramics exhibited good electric properties, with a piezoelectric constant d33 of 166 pC/N at 80% BTO weight percentage. To evaluate the properties of 3D printed BTO ceramics, a 1.4 MHz focused ultrasonic array was fabricated and characterized. The −6dB bandwidth of the array was 40%, and the insertion loss at the center frequency was 50 dB. The results show that the printed BTO ceramics array have good potential to be used in ultrasonic transducers for various applications.
Highlights
Transducer elements play a critical role on transducer performance, so proper piezoelectric material selection in ultrasonic transducer design is of utmost importance
Chen et al at the University of Southern California reported that BaTiO3 piezoelectric ceramics were printed for fabricating single-element focusing ultrasonic transducers and four-element annular piezoelectric arrays [20,21]
It can be seen that the grain morphology is inhomogeneous with grain size in the range of 10–15 μm, and a large amount of pore appears at relatively low BTO weight percentage (70 wt%)
Summary
Transducer elements play a critical role on transducer performance, so proper piezoelectric material selection in ultrasonic transducer design is of utmost importance. A stereolithography apparatus (SLA) is a form of 3D printing technology which usually uses ultraviolet light to cure photosensitive resin. It doesn’t require high energy laser beams to avoid the defects caused by internal stress. Chen et al at the University of Southern California reported that BaTiO3 piezoelectric ceramics were printed for fabricating single-element focusing ultrasonic transducers and four-element annular piezoelectric arrays [20,21]. Research on the relationships between weight percentage, microstructure, and the electric properties of lead-free BTO ceramics are lacking. To better achieve high-quality BTO ceramics for device applications, the effect of weight percentage on microstructures, piezoelectric, ferroelectric, and dielectric properties were investigated for this paper. A focused ultrasonic array was fabricated to further evaluate the properties of BTO ceramics
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