Investigation of cross-coupling in 1-3 piezocomposite arrays

Plate waves inside the piezoelectric layer are much involved in the elements cross-coupling in transducer arrays for medical imaging. In this work, such waves are analyzed in 1-3 piezocomposite materials on the basis of conventional guided modes formalism in which the piezocomposite is considered as a homogeneous medium. Cross-coupling measurements have been made on two different transducer arrays using network analyzer and a laser interferometric probe. It is shown how the analysis in terms of symmetrical Lamb waves gives an interesting qualitative interpretation, explaining most of the cross-coupling amplitude variations with frequency. Results show that the 0th and 3rd symmetrical Lamb waves are mainly involved in coupling inside composite plates. The S0 mode is responsible for the inter-element coupling, whereas the S3 mode widens the effective width of the excited element.