Simulation and experimental investigation of the effects of subdicing on a single element transducer

Abstract

Structure design of medical ultrasonic transducers is of prime importance, as it not only affects the transducer's imaging performance, but also limits its application scene and scope. In this paper, a single element transducer with subdicing is fabricated and its performance is studied using finite element method. In addition, the comparison transducers (CPTs) are fabricated as well as single element transducers with and without subdicing the element. The experimental results show that by subdicing the element with cut width 120 μm and cut depth 500 μm of the single transducer with a center frequency of 8 MHz and dimension of 2 mm × 0.9 mm × 1.2 mm, the center frequency reduced by up to 58.3 %, the −6 dB bandwidth increased by up to 48.7 %, but the echo signal amplitude reduced by 52.4 %. Compared to CPT-5, the volume of the subdicing transducer reduced by 94.6 %, the center frequency reduced by 4.3 %, the −6 dB bandwidth increased by 1.26 times, the transmitted pulse signal length decreased by 50 %, and the echo signal amplitude achieved 28 % of CPT-5. Therefore, the proposed subdicing transducer may have great potential for miniaturization and close-range imaging.