Planar phased ultrasound transducer including a first layer including a sheet of piezoelectric material, a piezo frame surrounding an outer perimeter of the sheet of piezoelectric material, and an epoxy material placed between the piezo frame and the sheet of piezoelectric material. The transducer includes a flex frame secured to a back side of the first layer.

A piezoelectric element includes a piezoelectric element main body as a laminated body of a first electrode layer, a piezoelectric layer disposed on the first electrode layer, and a second electrode layer disposed on the piezoelectric layer, and a metal layer disposed on the second electrode layer via an insulating layer, the piezoelectric layer extends from an inner side of at least a part of an overlapping part of an outer peripheral edge of the second electrode layer overlapping an outer peripheral edge of the piezoelectric element main body to an outer side, and the metal layer and the insulating layer extend from an inner side of at least a part of the overlapping part to an outer side to overlap the piezoelectric layer on an outer side of an outer peripheral edge of the second electrode layer.

An ultrasonic transducer device comprises a piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT), a transmitter with first and second differential outputs, and a controller. The PMUT includes a membrane layer. A bottom electrode layer, comprising a first bottom electrode and a second bottom electrode, is disposed above the membrane layer. The piezoelectric layer is disposed above the bottom electrode layer. The top electrode layer is disposed above the piezoelectric layer and comprises a segmented center electrode disposed above a center of the membrane layer and a segmented outer electrode spaced apart from the segmented center electrode. The controller, responsive to the PMUT being placed in a transmit mode, is configured to couple the first and second segments of the bottom electrode layer with ground, couple the first output of the transmitter with the segments of the segmented center electrode, and couple the second output with the segments of the segmented outer electrode.

The present invention relates to a method of preparing a shape-reconfigurable micropatterned polymer haptic material using an electric field technique, and more particularly, to a method of preparing a shape-reconfigurable micro-patterned polymer thin film and a haptic material by controlling the orientation of a liquid-crystalline organic polymer using an electric field control system and inducing the generation of defect structures having a regular microstructure array in a polymer film.

A membrane hydrophone for analyzing high frequency ultrasound transducers has a piezoelectric membrane with electrode patterns created on the surface of the membrane. In one embodiment, the electrode patterns are doubled on each side of the membrane except for an active area of the hydrophone. In one embodiment, the electrodes are formed by removing a conductive coating on the membrane with laser pulses. The laser is set to remove the conductive coating from the piezoelectric membrane from the same side of the membrane in order to accurately align the electrodes in the active area. In one embodiment, the active area of the hydrophone has an area in a range of 900-10,000 square microns.

The present application provides an ultrasonic transducer and a method for preparing the same. The ultrasonic transducer includes a substrate layer, a piezoelectric layer, and an acoustic matching layer laminated in sequence along the thickness direction; the piezoelectric layer includes a substrate, the substrate includes a wiring area and a plurality of piezoelectric array elements distributed in a matrix along the row direction and the column direction, and two adjacent piezoelectric array elements are bonded by an insulating adhesive, and the upper and lower surfaces of the piezoelectric array elements and the insulating adhesive are formed by a vacuum-plated electrode layer to form row and column strip electrodes, which can be formed by cutting and photolithography. The end of the first electrode layer is electrically connected to the first conductive element; the end of the second electrode layer is electrically connected to the second conductive element.

The present invention relates to a method of preparing a shape-reconfigurable micropatterned polymer haptic material using an electric field technique, and more particularly, to a method of preparing a shape-reconfigurable micro-patterned polymer thin film and a haptic material by controlling the orientation of a liquid-crystalline organic polymer using an electric field control system and inducing the generation of defect structures having a regular microstructure array in a polymer film.

An ultrasonic element includes a substrate in which an opening is formed, a vibrating plate provided at the substrate, the vibrating plate including a first surface in contact with the substrate, the vibrating plate blocking the opening, a piezoelectric element provided at a second surface on an opposite side from the first surface of the vibrating plate, a protective substrate facing the second surface and protecting the piezoelectric element, and a suppressing unit provided between the protective substrate and the vibrating plate, the suppressing unit being configured to suppress a vibration of the vibrating plate, in which in the piezoelectric element, a first electrode, a piezoelectric layer, and a second electrode are stacked in this order from the second surface, and an active part is a part of the vibrating plate where the first electrode, the piezoelectric layer, and the second electrode overlap, the suppressing unit is provided around the active part, and a slit is formed in the suppressing unit, in plan view from a stacking direction.