An ultrasonic probe includes: an acoustic element that generates an ultrasonic wave and detects the ultrasonic wave; a support that supports the acoustic element on a side opposite to a test object side; and a heat dissipation material disposed on a side of the support opposite to the acoustic element, wherein an attenuation/thermal conduction material made of an attenuating material containing a thermally conductive material is disposed in contact with the heat dissipation material.

An ultrasonic probe that comprises an ultrasonic transducer that includes an array of transducer elements and an attenuation material is provided. The attenuation material comprises a polymer composition that includes a liquid crystalline polymer and a thermally conductive particulate material. The liquid crystalline polymer has a melting temperature of about 270 C. or more and a melt viscosity of about 500 Pa-s or less as determined at a temperature of 45 C. above the melting temperature and shear rate of 400 s.sup.1 in accordance with ISO Test No. 11443:2005, and the polymer composition also has a through-plane conductivity of about 0.2 W/m-K or more.

The teachings of the present disclosure enable the manufacture of one or more piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs) having a resonant frequency of a specific target value and/or substantially matched resonant frequencies. In accordance with the present disclosure, a flexible membrane of a PMUT is modified to impart a desired parameter profile for stiffness and/or mass to tune its resonant frequency to a target value. The desired parameter profile is achieved by locally removing or adding material to regions of one or more layers of the flexible membrane to alter its geometric dimensions and/or density. In some embodiments, material is added or removed non-uniformly across the structural layer to realize a material distribution that more strongly affects membrane stiffness than mass. In some embodiments, material having a specific residual stress is added to, and/or removed from, the membrane to define a desired modal stiffness for the membrane.

An ultrasonic transducer (1) is disclosed. The transducer includes a wear cap (2) and an active element (18). The wear cap includes at least one slot arranged so as to define a strip (15). The strip is arranged to be in vibrational communication with the active element. The ultrasonic transducer may include a rigid block (21). The active element may be interposed between the wear cap and the rigid block, and the rigid block may be configured to provide a backing mass for the active element. Optionally, the rigid block may include chamfered edges (25, 27).

A backing component configured to receive and attenuate transmitted acoustic signals from a transducer element in an ultrasound probe is disclosed. The backing component has a unitary structure of a first material and a second material, and a variation in packing density of the first material across at least a portion of a thickness of the backing component. Further, a method of making a backing component for a transducer element in an ultrasound probe is disclosed. The method includes performing an additive manufacturing technique using a first material and a second material to form the backing component that has a unitary structure of the first material and the second material. Performing the additive manufacturing technique involves varying a packing density of the first material across at least a portion of thickness of the backing component.

Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) resonators that include a modified outside stack portion and methods for fabricating such BAW resonators are provided. One BAW resonator includes a reflector, a bottom electrode, a piezoelectric layer, and a top electrode. An active region is formed where the top electrode overlaps the bottom electrode and an outside region surrounds the active region. The piezoelectric layer includes a top surface adjacent to the top electrode and a bottom surface adjacent to the bottom electrode. The piezoelectric layer further includes an outside piezoelectric portion in the outside region with a bottom surface in the outside region that is an extension of the bottom surface of the piezoelectric layer, and the outside piezoelectric portion includes an angled sidewall that resides in the outside region and extends from the top surface of the piezoelectric layer to the bottom surface of the outside piezoelectric portion in the outside region.

An ultrasound transducer with at least one piezoelectric oscillator, a damping compound and at least one electrically conductive conducting element that is in contact with the piezoelectric oscillator. The damping compound in an ultrasound transducer encloses at least the at least one conducting element, and the composite structure of the at least one conducting element and of the damping compound is designed such that the composite structure is in contact over an area with the piezoelectric oscillator, and forms a support on the side of the ultrasound transducer that faces away from the piezoelectric oscillator on which the ultrasound transducer can be supported.

A piezoelectric transducer comprises a piezoelectric element operable to transduce mechanical movement of the piezoelectric element to an electrical signal and to transduce an electrical signal in the piezoelectric element to a mechanical movement thereof, wherein the piezoelectric transducer is operable to transduce above a temperature of 200 C.

Various methods and systems are provided for fabricating a backing material for an acoustic probe. In one example, the backing material may include an additively manufactured meta-structure formed from layers of a tessellation pattern. A geometry of the tessellation pattern and an alignment of the layers may affect acoustic properties of the backing material.

Acoustic absorbers are formed for ultrasound transducers. The acoustic absorber provides desired attenuation, impedance, and thermal conductivity qualities based on a filler of rubber, ceramic, and metal particles. The relative amounts of the different fillers may be adjusted to tune the acoustic attenuation, thermal conductivity, and/or acoustic impedance.