Micromachined piezoelectric ultrasound transducer arrays
AssigneeTRS Technologies, Inc.
InventorsXiaoning JIANG, Wesley S. HACKENBERGER, Kevin A. SNOOK
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Abstract
A piezoelectric composite micromachined ultrasound transducer including single and multilayer 1-D and 2-D arrays having through-wafer-vias (TWVs) that significantly decreased electrical impedance per element, and hence the improved electrical impedance matching to T/R electronics and improved signal to noise ratio is disclosed. The TWVs facilitate integrated interconnection in single element transducers (positive and negative contact on the same side) and array transducers (contact pads array for integration with T/R switches and/or pre-amplifier circuits).
Claims24
A piezoelectric element, comprising:
- a plurality of piezoelectric structures;
- one or more electrically conductive vias traversing through the piezoelectric element;
- and
- an epoxy separating the piezoelectric structure.
The element of claim 6, further comprising:
- a second electrode applied to and in contact with the plurality of piezoelectrical structures and one or more electrically conductive vias.
The element of claim 12, wherein the circuit is a flex circuit.
The element of claim 13, wherein the flex circuit is a multilayer flex circuit.
A piezoelectric ultrasound transducer, comprising:
- at least one piezoelectric composite array element having electrically conductive through-wafer-vias.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.