Investigations of High-Performance Ultrasonic Transducers based on PMN-PT Single Crystals

Ultrasonic transducers for NDE applications are commonly based on Lead Zirconate Titanate or PZT, an inorganic compound and ceramic perovskite material. Until now the advantages of PMN-PT are used in medical applications, but are not implemented in NDE. Lead Magnesium Niobate-Lead Titanate (PMN-PT) is well known for its high sensitivity and broad frequency spectrum. While conventional PZT materials have an electromechanical coupling factor K33 (a measure of the conversion between electrical and acoustic energy) of about 0.72, PMN-PT materials reach peak values of more than 0.93. For applications with low signal amplitudes, high electronic noise and small transducer elements, the performance of ultrasonic probes can be significantly enhanced by using Lead Magnesium Niobate-Lead Titanate (PMN-PT) instead of PZT. This single-crystal material offers significantly better piezo parameters and leads to a higher sensitivity and larger bandwidth. There is a better depth resolution possible with this transducers as practical tests have shown. Similar to PZT it can also be fabricated in 1-3 piezo-composite technology. In a cooperation between Fraunhofer IKTS, iBULe Photonics, and IFU Diagnostic Systems, PMN-PT ultrasonic transducers are developed and optimized. The performance of phased array probes and single element transducers was measured by a so called PCUS® pro electronic front end from Fraunhofer and compared with equivalent PZT-based probes. As a result various single element and phased array transducers with im-proved performances are available for NDT of typical aerospace materials and applications. These test setups were used to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages, such as achievable precision or costs, for the implementation of a PMN-PT-based UT matrix probe. Based on this, a wiring variant adapted to the PMN-PT was developed and optimised for the matrix setups by pre-assembling the matching layers. The most favourable setup turned out to be bonding the PMN-PT composites to the prefabricated matching layers together with a rigid-flexible PCB frame. This enabled direct wire bonding of 64 matrix elements to the matching PCB pads on the rigid frame. © 2024 The Authors. Published by NDT.net under License CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.