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US 5,704,105 AGranted
Method of manufacturing multilayer array ultrasonic transducers
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsVenkat Subramaniam Venkataramani, Douglas Glenn Wildes, Robert Stephen Lewandowski
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for fabricating "1.5D" and "2D" multilayer ultrasonic transducer arrays employs dicing saw kerfs, which provide acoustic isolation between rows. The kerfs are metallized to provide electrical connection between surface electrode layers and buried internal electrode layers. A multilayer piezoceramic transducer element for a "1.5D" or "2D" array produced by this method has higher capacitance, and accordingly provides better transducer sensitivity, in comparison to a single layer element.
Claims12
A method of manufacturing an array of multilayer ultrasonic transducer elements, said method comprising:
- providing a body of piezoelectric material having two major surfaces and an internal buried conductor layer structure, the internal buried conductor layer structure including at least one ground conductor layer comprising a set of generally planar buried ground electrode precursors extending in a first coordinate direction and spaced in a second coordinate direction, and at least one signal conductor layer comprising a set of generally planar buried signal electrode precursors extending in the first coordinate direction and spaced in the second coordinate direction, the buried signal electrode precursors being staggered in the second coordinate direction with reference to the buried ground electrode precursors such that intermediate regions of the buried signal electrode precursors are in alignment with spaces between the buried ground electrode precursors and intermediate regions of the buried ground electrode precursors are in alignment with spaces between the buried signal electrode precursors;
- forming a first set of partial depth row isolation slots extending from one of the major surfaces into the body in alignment with spaces between buried ground electrode precursors and intersecting buried signal electrode precursors to define buried signal electrode portions, and a second set of partial depth row isolation slots extending from the other of the major surfaces into the body in alignment with spaces between buried signal electrode precursors and intersecting buried ground electrode precursors to define buried ground electrode portions;
- and
- forming a signal electrode layer on the one of the major surfaces and buried signal electrode access conductors within the first set of row isolation slots to electrically connect the buried signal electrodes to the signal electrode layer, and forming a ground electrode layer on the other of the major surfaces and buried ground electrode access conductors within the second set of row isolation slots extending from the other major surface to electrically connect the buried ground electrodes to the ground electrode layer.
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A method of manufacturing an array of multilayer ultrasonic transducer elements, said method comprising:
- providing a body of piezoelectric material having two major surfaces and an internal buried conductor layer structure, the internal buried conductor layer structure including at least one ground conductor layer comprising a set of generally planar buried ground electrode precursors extending in a first coordinate direction and spaced in a second coordinate direction, and at least one signal conductor layer comprising a set of generally planar buried signal electrode precursors extending in the first coordinate direction and spaced in the second coordinate direction, the buried signal electrode precursors being staggered in the second coordinate direction with reference to the buried ground electrode precursors such that intermediate regions of the buried signal electrode precursors are in alignment with spaces between the buried ground electrode precursors and intermediate regions of the buried ground electrode precursors are in alignment with spaces between the buried signal electrode precursors;
- forming at least one partial depth row isolation slot extending from one of the major surfaces into the body in alignment with spaces between buried ground electrode precursors and intersecting buried signal electrode precursors to define buried signal electrode portions, and at least one partial depth row isolation slot extending from the other of the major surfaces into the body in alignment with spaces between buried signal electrode precursors and intersecting buried ground electrode precursors to define buried ground electrode portions;
- and
- forming a signal electrode layer on the one of the major surfaces and buried signal electrode access conductors within the at least one row isolation slot extending from the one major surface to electrically connect the buried signal electrodes to the signal electrode layer, and forming a ground electrode layer on the other of the major surfaces and buried ground electrode access conductors within the at least one row isolation slot extending from the other of the major surfaces to electrically connect the buried ground electrodes to the ground electrode layer.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.