COMPOSITE TRANSDUCERS FOR MEDICAL ULTRASONICS

我们的目标是开发和评估更好的传感器， 超声生物医学图像的质量。 改进的传感器将 使用新型线性压电陶瓷/聚合物复合材料开发 材料和新的非线性材料以前没有评估的医疗 超声波换能器 这是一个合作的努力， 陶瓷生产商霍尼韦尔和成熟的生物医学成像 实验室在马约诊所。 霍尼韦尔将提供并描述 各种新型陶瓷/聚合物的物理/声学性能 具有预测良好性能的属性的复合换能器元件 生物医学成像 此外，霍尼韦尔将提供元素 由几种非线性材料制成， 其将检测所接收的超声能量的幅度或功率。 马约集团将与霍尼韦尔集团合作， 将复合元件制成凹面圆盘和线阵换能器， 将根据分辨率细胞大小来表征它们的成像响应 以及它们在发射和接收特性方面的灵敏度 例如增益带宽积、发射机灵敏度因子、插入损耗 和品质因数。 之间的关系 换能器元件的物理/声学特性，成像特性， 灵敏度测量将被开发并用于预测 新传感器的性能。 这个项目的成功完成将导致1）更好，更多 用于生物医学成像的易于制造的换能器，以及2）非线性 用于测量超声波束的幅度或功率的换能器。

Our goal is to develop and evaluate better transducers for improving the quality of ultrasonic biomedical images. Improved transducers will be developed using new linear piezoelectric ceramic/polymer composite materials and new nonlinear materials not previously evaluated for medical ultrasound transducers. This is a collaborative effort between a well established piezoelectric ceramics producer, Honeywell, and a well established biomedical imaging laboratory at Mayo Clinic. Honeywell will provide and characterize the physical/acoustic properties of a wide range of new ceramic/polymer composite transducer elements having attributes predictive of good biomedical imaging. In addition, Honeywell will provide elements fabricated from several nonlinear materials which may result in transducers that will detect magnitude or power of received ultrasound energy. The Mayo group, in collaboration with the Honeywell group, will assemble the composite elements into concave disc and linear array transducers, and will characterize their imaging responses, in terms of resolution cell size and their sensitivities, in terms of transmit and receive characteristics such as gain bandwidth product, transmit sensitivity factor, insertion loss and quality factor using calibrated hydrophones. Relationships between the transducer element physical/acoustic properties, the imaging properties, and the sensitivity measurements will be developed and used to predict the behavior of new transducers. Successful completion of this project would result in 1) better and more easily fabricated transducers for biomedical imaging and 2) nonlinear transducers for measurement of magnitude or power of ultrasonic beams.