Super-Cell Piezoelectric Composite With 1-3 Connectivity.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Acoustics
• Piezoelectric Materials

Background:

• Standard "dice and fill" method (DFM) for 1-3 piezocomposites introduces spurious modes, limiting transducer performance.
• Spurious modes near the thickness mode frequency can drastically reduce the effective operating frequency range of ultrasound transducers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and evaluate a novel 1-3 piezocomposite with a "super-cell" structure (13SC) to overcome DFM limitations.
• To compare the electroacoustic performance of the 13SC composite with traditional DFM composites.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a 13SC piezocomposite using PZT and epoxy resin with two lateral periodicities and kerfs.
• Fabrication of two regular 1-3 piezocomposites using DFM for performance comparison.
• Measurement of electroacoustic responses in water for all fabricated composites.
• Progressive thinning of samples to investigate performance evolution with increasing operating frequency (0.4 to 1.3 MHz).

Main Results:

• The 13SC composite exhibited stable performance across the entire tested frequency range (0.4-1.3 MHz).
• Regular DFM composites showed performance limitations, consistent with numerical simulations.
• The 13SC composite demonstrated superior usability and consistent characteristics compared to DFM composites.

Conclusions:

• The 13SC piezocomposite design effectively mitigates spurious modes inherent in DFM fabrication.
• The 13SC composite offers a wider and more reliable operating frequency range for ultrasound transducer applications.
• This novel structure presents a significant advancement for high-performance piezoelectric devices.