“Pipe organ” Air-coupled broad bandwidth transducer

Abstract

Air-coupled transducers are used to conduct fast non-contact inspections in NDT. Normally, the bandwidth of a conventional transducer can be enhanced, but with a cost to its sensitivity. However, low sensitivity is very disadvantageous in air-coupled devices. This paper presents a methodology for improving the bandwidth of an air-coupled micro-machined ultrasonic transducer (MUT) without sensitivity loss by connecting a number of resonating pipes of various length to a cavity in the backplate. The design is inspired by the pipe organ musical instrument, where the resonant frequency (pitch) of each pipe is mainly determined by its length.