Biblio

The main limitation of acoustic particle separation for microfluidic application is its low sorting efficiency. This is due to the weak coupling of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) into the microchannel. In this work, we demonstrate bulk acoustic wave (BAW) particle sorting using capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) for the first time. A collapsed mode CMUT was driven in air to generate acoustic pressure within the silicon substrate in the in-plane direction of the silicon die. This acoustic pressure was coupled into a water droplet, positioned at the side of the CMUT die, and measured with an optical hydrophone. By using a beam steering approach, the ultrasound generated from 32 CMUT elements were added in-phase to generate a maximum peak-to-peak pressure of 0.9 MPa. Using this pressure, 10 µm latex beads were sorted almost instantaneously.

The fingerprint sensor based on pMUTs was reported [1]. Spatial resolution of the image depends on the size of the acoustic source when a plane wave is used. If the size of the acoustic source is smaller, piezoelectric films with high dielectric constant are required. In this study, in order to obtain small acoustic source, we proposed Pb(Zrx Th-x)O3 (PZT) epitaxial transducers with high dielectric constant. PbTiO3 (PTO) epitaxial films were grown on conductive La-SrTiO3 (STO) substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. Longitudinal wave conversion loss of PTO transducers was measured by a network analyzer. The thermoplastic elastomer was used instead of real fingerprint. We confirmed that conversion loss of piezoelectric film/substrate structure was increased by contacting the elastomer due the change of reflection coefficient of the substrate bottom/elastomer interface. Minimum conversion loss images were obtained by mechanically scanning the soft probe on the transducer surface. We achieved the detection of the fingerprint phantom based on the elastomer in the GHz.

This paper designed a longitudinal bending coupled piezoelectric transducer. The transducer is composed of a rear metal block, a longitudinally polarized piezoelectric ceramic piece and a slotted round front cover. The longitudinal vibration of the piezoelectric oscillators drive the front cover to generate bending vibration to widen the operating frequency band while reducing the fluctuation of transmission voltage response. In this paper, the design method of this multimode coupled transducer is given, and the method is verified by numerical simulation. The results show that the analytical theory and numerical simulation results have good consistency. This longitudinal-flexural coupled vibration transducer widens the bandwidth while preserving the emission voltage response.

According to the technical difficulties of the air-coupled piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer, 1-3 type piezoelectric composites and double matching layers structure are adopted in order to solve the acoustic impedance mismatch at the interface between the piezoelectric materials and air. The optimal design of the matching layer thickness for double matching layers structure air-coupled ultrasonic transducer is also completed through experiments. Based on this, 440 kHz flat-plate and focused air-coupled piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer are designed, fabricated and characterized. Finally, surface cracks are detected using the focused air-coupled piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer.

Wireless transmission of power has been in research for over a century. Our project aims at transmitting electric power over a distance of room. Various methods using microwaves, lasers, inductive coupling, capacitive coupling and acoustic medium have been used. In our project, we are majorly focusing on acoustic method of transferring power. Previous attempts of transferring power using acoustic methods have employed the usage of ultrasonic sound. In our project, we are using infrasonic sound as a medium to transfer electrical power. For this purpose, we are using suitable transducers and converters to transmit electric power from the 220V AC power supply to a load over a considerable distance. This technology can be used to wirelessly charge various devices more effectively.

In this work, a measurement system is developed based on acoustic resonance which can be used for classification of materials. Basically, the inspection methods based on acoustic, utilized for containers screening in the field, identification of defective pills hold high significance in the fields of health, security and protection. However, such techniques are constrained by costly instrumentation, offline analysis and complexities identified with transducer holder physical coupling. So a simple, non-destructive and amazingly cost effective technique in view of acoustic resonance has been formulated here for quick data acquisition and analysis of acoustic signature of liquids for their constituent identification and classification. In this system, there are two ceramic coated piezoelectric transducers attached at both ends of V-shaped glass, one is act as transmitter and another as receiver. The transmitter generates sound with the help of white noise generator. The pick up transducer on another end of the V-shaped glass rod detects the transmitted signal. The recording is being done with arduino interfaced to computer. The FFTs of recorded signals are being analyzed and the resulted resonant frequency observed for water, water+salt and water+sugar are 4.8 KHz, 6.8 KHz and 3.2 KHz respectively. The different resonant frequency in case different sample is being observed which shows that the developed prototype model effectively classifying the materials.

One of the primary motivations for using ultrasound reflectometry for fingerprint imaging is the promise of increased spoof resistance over conventional optical or capacitive sensing approaches due to the ability for ultrasound to determine the elastic impedance of the imaged material. A fake 3D printed plastic finger can therefore be easily distinguished from a real finger. However, ultrasonic sensors are still vulnerable to materials that are similar in impedance to tissue, such as water or rubber. Previously we demonstrated an ultrasonic fingerprint reader operating with 1.3GHz ultrasound based on pulse echo impedance imaging on the backside silicon interface. In this work, we utilize the large bandwidth of these sensors to differentiate between a finger and materials with similar impedances using the frequency response of elastic impedance obtained by transducer excitation with a wideband RF chirp signal. The reflected signal is a strong function of impedance mismatch and absorption [Hoople 2015].

Conventional photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) involves detection of optically induced thermo-elastic waves using ultrasound transducers. This approach requires acoustic coupling and the spatial resolution is limited by the focusing properties of the transducer. We present an all-optical PAM approach that involved detection of the photoacoustically induced surface displacements using an adaptive, two-wave mixing interferometer. The interferometer consisted of a 532-nm, CW laser and a Bismuth Silicon Oxide photorefractive crystal (PRC) that was 5×5×5 mm3. The laser beam was expanded to 3 mm and split into two paths, a reference beam that passed directly through the PRC and a signal beam that was focused at the surface through a 100-X, infinity-corrected objective and returned to the PRC. The PRC matched the wave front of the reference beam to that of the signal beam for optimal interference. The interference of the two beams produced optical-intensity modulations that were correlated with surface displacements. A GHz-bandwidth photoreceiver, a low-noise 20-dB amplifier, and a 12-bit digitizer were employed for time-resolved detection of the surface-displacement signals. In combination with a 5-ns, 532-nm pump laser, the interferometric probe was employed for imaging ink patterns, such as a fingerprint, on a glass slide. The signal beam was focused at a reflective cover slip that was separated from the fingerprint by 5 mm of acoustic-coupling gel. A 3×5 mm2 area of the coverslip was raster scanned with 100-μm steps and surface-displacement signals at each location were averaged 20 times. Image reconstruction based on time reversal of the PA-induced displacement signals produced the photoacoustic image of the ink patterns. The reconstructed image of the fingerprint was consistent with its photograph, which demonstrated the ability of our system to resolve micron-scaled features at a depth of 5 mm.