Structural health monitoring using polymer-based capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs)

Transducers based on a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) design have been fabricated using a rapid prototyping technique. This results in a device that is constructed principally from polymers, in a process which is simple and inexpensive. The resultant devices can be attached to the surfaces of solids. Their peak sensitivity is in the 80-100 kHz range, making them ideal for applications such as acoustic emission and structural health monitoring. Good low frequency sensitivity leads to applications in vibration monitoring.