Electroacoustic response of 1-3 piezocomposite transducers for high power applications

The electroacoustic performance of 1-3 piezoelectric composite transducers with low loss polymer filler was studied and compared to monolithic Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) (PZT) piezoelectric transducers. The 1-3 composite transducers exhibited significantly high electromechanical coupling factor (k(t) ∼ 0.64) when compared to monolithic counterparts (k(t) ∼ 0.5), leading to the improved bandwidth and loop sensitivity, being on the order of 67% and -24.0 dB versus 44% and -24.8 dB, respectively. In addition, the acoustic output power and transmit efficiency (∼50%) were found to be comparable to the monolithic PZT transducers, demonstrating potential for broad bandwidth, high power ultrasonic transducer applications.