3D Printing High-Performance Piezoelectric Ceramic with Complex Structure for Ultrasonic Array Transducer.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Additive Manufacturing
• Piezoelectric Ceramics

Background:

• 3D printing offers advantages in fabricating piezoelectric ceramics but faces limitations in microstructure, densification, and electrical properties.
• Existing methods struggle with complex geometries and achieving high performance for practical device applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a 3D printing method for high-performance piezoelectric ceramics with complex geometries.
• To demonstrate the fabrication of advanced devices, specifically ultrasonic transducers, using this method.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the digital light processing (DLP) technique for 3D printing.
• Manufactured samarium-doped lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (Sm-PMN-PT) piezoelectric ceramics.
• Designed and fabricated an ultrasonic transducer annular array.

Main Results:

• Achieved a piezoelectric coefficient (d33) of 1285 pC N-1, the highest reported for 3D-printed piezoelectric ceramics.
• Fabricated an ultrasonic transducer with a 60% bandwidth, 952 mV peak-to-peak voltage, and improved imaging resolution.
• Demonstrated a new benchmark for 3D-printed ultrasonic transducer performance.

Conclusions:

• 3D printing, specifically DLP, can produce high-performance piezoelectric ceramics with complex structures.
• The developed method enables the creation of advanced devices like ultrasonic transducers, overcoming limitations of traditional manufacturing.
• This work highlights the significant potential of 3D-printed piezoelectric ceramics for demanding device applications.