Ultrasonic transducer

An acoustic transducer comprising:

• an acoustic pulse generator for producing pulses of acoustic energy and having a front application face and a rear face;
• an acoustic absorber juxtaposed to said rear face for absorbing a substantial portion of acoustic energy of pulses emerging from said rear face;
• plural metal heat transfer fingers embedded in said acoustic absorber;
• and
• a multilayer acoustic isolator coupled to said metal heat transfer fingers and between said acoustic absorber and an acoustically non-attenuative support/heat sink, said acoustic isolator including multiple sub-layers of a first material exhibiting a high acoustic impedance value, with interspersed second material sub-layers exhibiting a lower acoustic impedance value, both said first material sublayers and second material sublayers having substantial heat transfer capabilities, said multilayer acoustic isolator causing reflections of acoustic energy not absorbed by said acoustic absorber to substantially reduce an amount thereof entering said acoustically non-attenuative support/heat sink.

An acoustic transducer comprising:

• acoustic pulse generating means for producing pulses of acoustic energy and having a front application face and a rear face;
• acoustic absorber means coupled to said rear face for absorbing acoustic energy of pulses emerging from said rear face;
• support means exhibiting a first acoustic impedance;
• and
• acoustic isolator means coupled between said acoustic absorber means and said support means, said acoustic isolator means exhibiting a low attenuation of said acoustic energy and a second acoustic impedance value that is substantially different from said first acoustic impedance value, a boundary between said support means and said acoustic isolator means reflecting acoustic energy not absorbed by said acoustic absorber means back towards said acoustic absorber means.