The electro-acoustic output behavior and thermal stability of 1–3 piezoelectric composite transducers applied to FUS surgery

Abstract

For 1–3 piezoelectric composite high-power transducers applied to FUS surgery, avoiding the electro-acoustic output performance fluctuating with the temperature is an important task. In this work, 1–3 type piezocomposites were fabricated with dice and fill method. The PZT4 piezoceramic was used as active phase, and mica powder modified epoxy resin E51 was used as passive phase: the mass ratio of the epoxy and mica powder was 10:x. Those composites were evaluated for power transducer applications with air backing and without front layer. The effect of mica powder modified polymer filler on the electro-acoustic output behavior and thermal stability of the transducer were detailed investigated. The results show that mica power could increase the storage modulus and the toughness of the polymer. As a result, an elevated kt of 0.7 was observed when the adding amount was 50 wt%. The electro-acoustic conversion efficiency (ηea) of the transducer substantial increased to 81–83% and with good thermal stability when x = 1–5. The research results show that adding mica powder in the filler materials was one of the potential methods to prepare high-power piezocomposite transducer.