Determination of an ultrasonic transducer's sensitivity and impedance in a pulse-echo setup

The role that an ultrasonic piezoelectric transducer plays in an ultrasonic measurement system can be described in terms of the transducer's input electrical impedance and its sensitivity. Here, a new model-based approach is proposed to determine both the transducer impedance and sensitivity in a pulse-echo setup. This new method is much simpler to apply than previous "self-reciprocity" calibration methods for determining sensitivity and generalizes those methods. It is demonstrated that sensitivities obtained with this new method agree well with the sensitivities obtained by a three-transducer method commonly used in calibration studies. It is demonstrated that at the megahertz frequencies at which ultrasonic transducers operate it is important to compensate for cabling effects in these measurements. The influence of the pulser/receiver settings on the results obtained also will be discussed.