Nonlinearity analysis of piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers based on couple stress theory

This paper studies the static deformation behavior of a piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer （PMUT） actuated by a strong external electric field. The transducer membrane consists of a piezoelectric layer, a passive layer and two electrode layers. The nonlinearities of the piezoelectric layer caused by electrostriction under a strong electric field are analyzed. Because the thickness of the transducer membrane is on the microscale, the size dependence of the deformation behavior is evaluated using the couple stress theory. The results show that the optimal ratio of the top electrode diameter and the membrane diameter is around 0.674. It is also found that this optimal value does not depend on any other parameters if the thicknesses of the two electrodes are negligible compared with those of the piezo- electric and passive layers. In addition, the nonlinearities of the piezoelectric layer will become stronger along with the increase of the electric field, which means that softening of the membrane stiffness occurs when a strong external electric field is applied. Meanwhile, the optimal thickness ratio for the passive layer and the piezoelectric layer is not equal to 1.0 which is usually adopted by previous researchers. Because there exists size dependence of membrane deforma-tion, the optimal value of this thickness ratio needs to be greater than 1.0 on the microscale.

STUDY ON MECHANISM OF ARC-EXCITED ULTRASONIC

A mechanism of excited arc to be an controlled “ultrasonic emission source” is described. An developed electrical source with an certain frequency bandwidth for the purpose of the arc excited is connected with an conventional welding power supply through coupling the cables for the experiment. Some resonant frequency bands for the arc excited ultrasonic are discovered in the welding process, and its frequency, amplitude and phase'shift are recorded. This principle demonstrates that arc can be used not only for a thermal source, but also for an ultrasonic emission source, which may be extent to the industrial application in some new ways, such as for automatic welding process control and quality inspection.

The equivalent circuit of ultrasonic coupling vibration of a longitudinally-excited short column

On the basis of apparent elasticity method, we derived the equivalent circuit of coupling vibration of a short column and discussed its frequency equation and the effects of the load impedance on the resonant frequency of the short column. By the equivalent circuit, we calculated the input mechanical impedance of the longitudinally-excited short column and the curves of the apparent vibration velocity ratio versus the geometrical dimensions of the column. It shows that the equivalent circuit method is a simple and convenient one to analyze and calculate the coupling vibration of the short column.