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Ferroelectrics
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PVDF polymers: Imaging transducers and


ultrasonic hydrophone probes
a

Qian Zhang & Peter A. Lewin

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and


Biomedical Engineering and Science, Institute, Drexel University,
Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Published online: 26 Oct 2011.

To cite this article: Qian Zhang & Peter A. Lewin (1995): PVDF polymers: Imaging transducers and
ultrasonic hydrophone probes, Ferroelectrics, 171:1, 381-403
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00150199508018449

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0 1995 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) Amsterdam B.V.


Published under license by Gordon and Breach Science Publishers SA
Printed in Malaysia

PVDF POLYMERS: IMAGING TRANSDUCERS AND


ULTRASONIC HYDROPHONE PROBES
QIAN ZHANG and PETER A . LEWIN
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
and Science Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U S A

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(Received September 19, 1994; in final form December 29, 1994)

This paper presents practical applications of PVDF polymers in biomedical ultrasonics. The applications
discussed entail both miniature hydrophone probes for sensing ultrasonic fields and a new generation
of non-resonant pulse-echo imaging transducers, which use multilayer polymer films. The multilayer
PVDF transducer structure discussed here represents a relatively unconventional approach to the pulseecho imaging transducer design. The non-resonant design provides exceptionally wide bandwidth and
is suitable for operation at the clinically relevant frequencies. The design described uses multiple active
piezopolymer layers arranged according to a Barker code pattern and is adapted for pulse echo imaging.
The operation principle of the switchable Barker code transducer (SBCT) is outlined and it is shown
that not only SBCTs pulse-echo sensitivity is on a par with that achievable with the resonant PZT or
PZT composite transducer design but also the bandwidth achievable with SBCTs is twice as large as
that exhibited by the conventional imaging scanheads. Also, it is demonstrated that the SBCT can be
driven by virtually any excitation signal. This allows a potential improvement in clinical diagnosis by
optimizing image resolution at a given penetration depth. To verify the computer simulation results,
several three and seven layer Barker code transducers were fabricated and tested. The experimental
results were found to be in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.

Keywords: PVDF hydrophones, wideband PVDF sources, multilayer imaging transducers.

1. INTRODUCTION
The availability of piezoelectic plastic materials which followed Dr. Kawais discovery of remanent polarization in polyvinylidene fluoride has revolutionized the
field of ultrasonics. In particular, the wideband properties of the PVDF material
have dramatically improved the overall acoustic performance of piezoelectric hydrophones used for sensing ultrasonic fields. At present the calibrated PVDF hydrophones are not only preferred over ceramic probes but are also recommended
by international organizations for precise field measurements. The available bandwidth of the miniature PVDF hydrophone probes helped to provide evidence that
the nonlinear acoustic propagation phenomena cannot be ruled out in both diagnostic and therapeutic applications of ultrasound.
Wideband properties of a piezoelectric material are also of significant interest
in ultrasonic imaging applications. This is because image resolution improves with
increasing frequency. In addition, wide bandwidth material allows design and construction of a transducer which can operate well below its fundamental resonance
frequency. Such non-resonant transducer would be able to provide an image at
virtually any clinically relevant frequency. This, in turn, would increase the flexibility of ultrasound diagnosis by providing the operator with a possibility of trading
image resolution with penetration depth.
While PVDF materials wideband properties are excellent, its use in the field of
381

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382

Q. ZHANG and P. A. LEWIN

imaging transducer technology appears to be largely limited to special applications.


Thus, Brown reviewed the use of PVDF transducers in ultrasonic intravenous
catheter applications.' Sherar et al. used PVDF transducers for high frequency skin
and eye imaging,*.' and Lewin and Schafer described wideband PVDF sources for
Time Delay Spectrometry measurement^.^.^
This limited use of PVDF in ultrasound imaging is primarily due to the relatively
low electromechanical coupling coefficient and dielectric constant which contribute
to poor pulse-echo sensitivity of the PVDF source.
This work examines an alternative design of a pulse-echo PVDF transducer which
addresses these deficiencies. In section 2, a succinct review of the current state-ofthe art in the field of miniature PVDF hydrophone probes is given. This is done
partly because such probes are indispensable in testing and quantitative evaluation
of the imaging transducer's characteristics, and partly because the review demonstrates the impact which the discovery of piezoelectric properties in PVDF material had in the past two decades in the field of ultrasonic exposimetry. In section
3, the application of PVDF material in imaging transducer design is examined.
Also, the operation principle of a viable multilayer transducer design approach,
namely switchable Barker code transducer (SBCT) design is discussed. Further,
computer simulations of electrical impedance, pulse-echo sensitivity and two-way
insertion loss of the SBCT are presented and the simulation results are compared
with those obtained with an optimized PZT transducer. In section 4, the pulseecho responses of the SBCT obtained with different excitation signals are shown,
and the behavior of the SBCT and PZT transducers in tissue-like medium is examined. To verify the computer simulation results, a few prototypes of the Barker
code transducer were constructed and tested. Section 5 describes the details of a
prototype construction and presents the results of transducer testing in water. Also,
in this section, a comparison of the experimental results and theoretical predictions
is given. Finally, in section 6, the advantages and disadvantages of the SBCT design
are pointed out, and recommendations for future work are outlined.

2. WIDEBAND PVDF ULTRASONIC HYDROPHONE PROBES


One of the most important applications of the piezopolymer film lies in the ultrasonic hydrophone probe design. PVDF material has certain characteristics that
make it well suited for hydrophone design, such as good mechanical flexibility and
an acoustic impedance close to that of water. Since PVDF has a low planar coupling
coefficient, it can provide a very wide uniform frequency response. Also, unlike
the conventional piezoelectric ceramics, PVDF material is extremely flexible and
can be conveniently formed into desired shapes. In addition, PVDF material is
available in the form of sheets as thin as 9 pm which allows a potential bandwidth
in excess of 100 MHz to be obtained. Several early designs of PVDF hydrophone
probes which have been reported in the literature, have been summarized in References 6 and 7. At present, two basic designs are being used: the needle-type,6
and the membrane design originally suggested in Reference 8 and later described
in References 9 and 10. Since these two designs are recommended by international
organizations for precise field measurement^"-'^ and were also used to test the

PVDF TRANSDUCERS AND PROBES

383

performance of the multilayer non-resonant transducers, the hydrophone configurations along with their key electroacoustical parameters are briefly described in
the following.

2.1. Hydrophone Configurations

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There are two well established sensor configurations which are widely used in
measurement practice. Figure 1 shows the design principle of both sensors.
2.1.1. Membrane design. The first configuration uses the membrane approach
originally suggested in Reference 8. In this configuration thin PVDF film is stretched
out across an annular frame approximately 5-10 cm in diameter. Polyvinylidene
film is available in sheets as thin as 9 pm. For a sensor operating in a half wavelength
thickness mode (as is clearly the case for membrane configuration), 9 pm corresponds to a resonant frequency of approximately 110 MHz. l 4 Only a selected
portion of the PVDF film is made piezoelectrically active (spot
Sensitive element radius ranges from 0.1-0.5 mm, and is located in the center of
the membrane. Electrodes are usually made of gold and are vacuum deposited.
The PVDF polymer sheet is thin enough that it is essentially transparent to the
sound waves in the 1-15 MHz
The frequency response of a well designed membrane hydrophone is generally
flat below the resonance frequency and falls off beyond the resonance. End-ofcable voltage sensitivity of the membrane hydrophones terminated into 1 MR and
30 pF varies depending on the thickness of the PVDF film and the diameter of the
active element. Typically, 0.4 mm dia., 9 pm PVDF membrane exhibits sensitivity
on the order of -278 dB re 1 V/pPa. The sensitivities of 0.5 mm dia., 25 pm coplanar membrane and 50 pm, bilaminar membrane are - 270 and - 266 dB re 1
V/pPa, respectively. These values assume coaxial cable length of approximately
0.5 m. Due to the complexity of the task, the absolute calibration is seldom carried
out beyond 15 MHz.
2.1.2. Needle-type hydrophone. The second configuration of the PVDF hydrophone is shown in Figure l b . It illustrates the needle-type sensor described in detail
in Reference 6. Briefly, this hydrophone consists of a 9-24 pm thick circular PVDF
film, typically 0.5-1 mm diameter, attached to an insulating layer at the end of a
hypodermic needle (Figure lb). The backing material behind the element has a
higher acoustical impedance than water, and, as a result, the resonance corresponds
roughly to a quarter wavelength thickness of the PVDF film. l4 This construction
is particularly useful for spatial field plotting and near field (CW measurements).
Also, since the physical dimensions of the hydrophone probe are virtually the same
as the dimensions of the active sensor element, the disturbance of the acoustic field
is minimized. The design shown in Figure l b has a built-in preamplifier which
boosts the end-of-cable sensitivity and minimizes the transmission line phenomena.
The preamplifier features 14 dB gain which is externally controlled using a magnetic
relay. This feature is particularly useful when signal-to-noise ratio is critical and in
studying non-linear propagation effects. The advantages and disadvantages of an
integrated preamplifier are further discussed in section 2.4. An example of the

0. ZHANG and P. A. LEWlN

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384

FIGURE I Schematic construction of two PVDF hydrophone configurations: a) membrane-type (courtesy of Sonic Technologies. Hathoro, PA. USA). b) Lewin- or needle-type (courtesy of Force Institute,
Copenhagen-Brondby. Denmark).

frequency response of a needle-type hydrophone with an integrated preamplifier


is shown in Figure 2 .
2.2. Selecting and Using a Hydrophone

In ultrasonic field measurement practice the choice between the membrane- and
the needle hydrophone configuration depends on particular application and on the

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385

Frequency in MHz
FIGURE 2 Calibrated end-of-cable frequency response of a modified Lewin (needle-type) PVDF
hydrophone probe measured in water. Integrated preamplifier minimizes the transmission line phenomena.

limitations associated with the hydrophone parameters such as end-of-cable sensitivity, uniformity or flatness of frequency response, and angular response. I 6 , l 7
Since the precision of ultrasonic field measurements is critically dependent on the
effective diameter of the active sensor element and associated angular response,
these parameters are discussed in more detail. Also, a few comments on linearity
of the hydrophone, which is of particular importance, especially when characterizing high pressure amplitude fields, are included.

Effective diameter: As already mentioned, the smaller the element diameter, the
more omnidirectional the hydrophones angular response becomes. There are,
however, two factors that limit the minimum practical element size in the membrane
design. One is the tradeoff between element area and end-of-cable sensitivity. This
factor is not especially critical because it can be easily overcome by including a
preamplifier in the immediate vicinity of the active element. The second factor is
due to fringing effects associated with spot poling the PVDF film.9J8 During the
poling process, the electrical field spreads outside the area where the electrodes
overlap. This results in an asymmetrical sensitive element and hence asymmetrical
angular response. It has been shown9.*that the fringing effect becomes particularly significant for element diameters less than 1 mm.
Angular response: It is appropriate to point out that there is a difference between
the geometrical and effective diameter of the probe. Since, in general, and in the
case of membrane design in particular, the effective diameter is larger than the
geometrical ~ne~,~*
it has to be determined separately. This can be conveniently
done through a careful measurement of directivity pattern or angular response in
connection with an absolute calibration of the hydrophone probes. A more detailed
discussion of those calibration methods can be found in References 19 and 20.
A comprehensive comparison of angular responses for different hydrophone
designs can be found in Reference 17. It appears, that the Lewin-type hydrophone
directivity patterns are close to those predicted by a simple piston model. In contrast, the membrane-type designs exhibit accentuated side lobes and, in general,
the membrane directivity patterns cannot be predicted using the simple uniform

386

Q. ZHANG and P. A . LEWIN

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circular receiver model. This is due to the generation of membrane (Lamb) waves
when the sound field is incident at the critical angle (approximately 50)."'.17

Linearity: Another noteworthy hydrophone parameter is linearity. Modern diagnostic imaging equipment is capable of generating instantaneous pressure amplitudes on the order of 10 MPa." Such amplitudes are only an order of magnitude
lower than those encountered in the focal region of the extracorporeal shock wave
generators (lithotripters). The l i t h ~ t r i p t e r s ' ~are
. ' ~ widely used as the devices for
removal of kidney and gallstones without the need for open surgery. Therefore, a
faithful reproduction of these highly distorted pressure pulses is important for
quantitative acoustic field measurements. Currently available evidence seems to
indicate that the PVDF polymer material is linear up to extremely high pressures
(100 MPa).22,23Additional evidence supporting linear response of the PVDF polymer material emerges from the recent testing of the specially designed PVDF
hydrophones for underwater acoustic application^.^^ Negligible changes in the frequency response of the hydrophones were observed up to hydrostatic pressures of
6900 MPa.24
The choice of particular configuration depends on the applications o r given
measurement task. The membrane design exhibits wider bandwidth due to its pure
half wavelength resonance configuration, however its angular response is inferior
to the one achievable with a well designed needle-type hydrophone .I7 Since the
membrane hydrophone exhibits accentuated sidelobes, a needle-type hydrophone
may be preferable for measurements of CW fields such as those produced by a
CW Doppler device. This is because standing waves may be generated by reflections
from the membrane hydrophone. In addition, the membrane design is not well
suited for CW fields, and whenever measurements have to be carried out in confined
spaces. For in-vivo measurements, the classical membrane design is impractical
and a needle design or its modification must be ~ s e d .The
~ ~most
. ~severe
~
limitation
of the currently available piezoelectric hydrophones is due to their finite aperture.
Current experience indicates that fabrication of 0.2 mm effective radius hydrophone
is feasible. Further improvements in spatial resolution can be offered by fiber optic
hydrophones2' at the expense of simplicity of the basic measurement arrangement.
2.3. Other Hydrophone Designs
Although the discussion previously was focused primarily on the needle-and-membrane type hydrophone probes, a few other designs have been reported. A multielement (array) membrane design can be made by spot poling a number of elements along the axis.*Such construction has been suggested for rapid lateral electronic
scanning of the field generated from diagnostic transducers, however, it requires
specially designed electronic circuitry for retrieving the signals from individual
elements.=
An interesting modification of the needle-type probe has been suggested in
Reference 29. In this design the liquefied polymer material is corona polarized on
a convex backing support and hence the probe shape corresponds to a fraction of
a sphere. This construction reportedly exhibits further improvement in directivity
patterns in comparison with the original needle design6 and brings them closer to

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PVDF TRANSDUCERS AND PROBES

387

the more desirable spherical characteristics. However, this is done at the expense
of the uniformity of the frequency response.
Another modification of the membrane designs described in section 2.2.1 has
been described in Reference 30. In this design PVDF sensor element is mounted
on a heavily absorbing backing and protected from the environment by a thin layer
of (usually gold) metallized film. This hydrophone has also a built-in preamplifier.
A comprehensive discussion of the advantages and disadvantages associated with
the use of integrated preamplifiers is given in Reference 31. Briefly, the most
important reason for inclusion of an integrated preamplifier is that, when properly
designed, it can exclude cable resonances and associated wave distortion. Those
effects are particularly troublesome at high pressure amplitudes but, since they are
dependent on cable length, they can be minimized by the shortest possible cable
length for a given measurement bandwidth. They can also be minimized by limiting
the bandwidth of the oscilloscope used for the recording of the pressure time
waveforms.18 In addition, a preamplifier may be desirable to make overall frequency response unif01-m.~~
It is well known that due to finite amplitude effects in
water, pressure-time waveforms generated by diagnostic ultrasound equipment
often exhibit spectral content well beyond 50 MHz.lRTherefore, the IEC recommendations call for hydrophone bandwidth to be approximately an order of magnitude larger than the center frequency of the measured pressure pulse. This, in
turn, leads to requirements on the overall frequency response of the hydrophone/preamplifier assembly. To minimize the intensity measurement errors, in
particular those caused by the hydrophones resonance response , a preamplifier
should be designed as a low pass filter in such a way that the overall frequency
response of the preamplifier hydrophone assembly is made as flat as possible.
3. MULTILAYER PIEZOPOLYMER TRANSDUCERS

In contrast to the significant advances made in the ultrasonic hydrophone probe


design, the impact of PVDF film on ultrasonic imaging transducers is much less
impressive. As mentioned previously, this apparent lack of interest in the design
of PVDF pulse-echo imaging transducers is primarily due to the low electromechanical coupling coefficient of the PVDF, which results in a poor pulse-echo
sensitivity. Also, a low dielectric constant and a high dielectric loss make it difficult
to match PVDF transducers with the associated electronics. To overcome these
problems, several piezopolymer multilayer structures have been ~uggested.~*-~
Prior to discussion of the multilayer design analyzed in this work, a brief review
of the existing multilayer polymer transducers and their operation principles is
given. This review provides a useful background for a discussion of a non-resonant
pulse-echo multilayer PVDF transducer described in the following.

3.1. Folded Multilayer Transducer


The folded multilayer transducer design has been investigated by several research
groups.32.33.3x
While in Reference 32 this approach was used to improve the transmitting properties of a piezopolymer transducer, in Reference 38 attention was

0.ZHANG and P. A. LEWIN

388

l
"
i
C=NY

a FolW rnultilaycr transducer

C= eA
t

b. an cquinlent single l a p transduca

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FIGURE 3 Schematic diagram of a folded transducer design.

focused on the improvement of electrical matching between the ceramic transducer


arrays and associated electronic circuits. Figure 3 shows schematically the principle
of operation of a folded multilayer transducer. Since each piezoelectric layer is
connected acoustically in series and electrically in parallel, the static capacitance
of the folded transducer is N2larger than that of an equivalent single layer transducer38
(see Figure 3). Consequently, a folded multilayer approach improves electrical
matching between the transducer and a voltage source, and hence increases the
pulse-echo sensitivity of the transducer.
As already indicated, the primary advantage of using a folded transducer design
is that it can reduce the electrical impedance of the transducer down to 50 R. This
is done by using appropriate number of active piezoelectric layers. As a rule of
thumb, the number of layers needed to achieve a desired electrical matching is
proportional to the thickness of a single layer. In the case of 25 pm PVDF film,
seven PVDF layers are needed to match the folded transducer to the 50 R voltage
source. Figure 4 compares the properties of a 5 MHz, 7-layer folded transducer
and an equivalent single layer PVDF transducer, also operating at the center
frequency of 5 M E . These properties include electrical impedance, 2-way insertion
loss and pulse-echo impulse response. Also, it should be noted that the electrical
resistances of both transmitting and receiving circuits were assumed to be 50 R.
It can be seen that the electrical impedance of the folded transducer is significantly
reduced compared to that of the single layer PVDF transducer. Also, the folded
PVDF transducer surpasses the conventional single layer PVDF transducer with
respect to the two-way insertion loss and two-way impulse response. The minimum
two-way insertion loss of the seven layer folded transducer is 32.4 dB vs 63.4 dB
obtained with a corresponding single layer PVDF transducer. In addition, the peak
amplitude of the pulse-echo impulse response of the folded transducer is -44.7
dB, which is approximately 34 dB higher than that achievable with the corresponding single layer PVDF transducer (see Figure 4).
However, when the input resistance of the receiving circuit is increased to 1 MR,
(i.e. virtually open circuit condition is imposed), a single layer PVDF transducer
exhibits insertion loss comparable with that of the folded transducer. Also, the
PVDFs two-way impulse response is slightly better than that of the 7 layer folded
transducer. This can be explained in the following way. It is known that the transmitting power of a transducer is inversely proportional to the square of the piezoelectric layer thicknes3* The use of a folded approach decreases the effective

PVDF TRANSDUCERS AND PROBES

-2

389

0
h

Ism

Oy

o_

--low

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n m

1.e-4

.C

P.c

3
0.0

05

1.0

1.5

2.0

rim (US)

2.8

3.0

3.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

25

3.0

3.5

Time (us)

FIGURE 4 Key properties of a 7 layer folded multilayer transducer and an equivalent single layer
PVDF transducer. Folded transducer: single layer PVDF thickness 25 pm, dia. 5 mm. Single layer
transducer: PVDF thickness 21 1 pm, dia. 5 mm. Both transducers operate at 5 MHz center frequency.

thickness of an individual piezoelectric layer by n times (n is the total number of


the active piezoelectric layers in the assembly). Therefore, the transmitting sensitivity of the folded transducers increases n times compared to that of an equivalent
single layer PVDF transducer (see Figure 3). On the other hand, the decrease in
the effective thickness in the folded transducer approach leads to reduced open
circuit receiving sensitivity. This is because the open circuit receiving sensitivity is
proportional to the thickness of the single piezoelectric layer. As a result, increased
sensitivity in transmitting mode is offset by the reduced open circuit sensitivity in

390

0 . ZHANG and P. A . LEWIN

receiving mode. Consequently, the pulse-echo sensitivity of the folded multilayer


transducer and the equivalent single layer PVDF transducer are almost identical.
Also, it is worth noting that the resonance frequency of the folded transducer
is determined by the overall thickness of the multilayer stack rather than by that
of a single piezoelectric
To improve the pulse-echo characteristics of the polymer transducers while retaining wideband properties of the PVDF film, a Barker code transducer design
was considered and its operation principles are given in the next section.

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3.2.

Barker Code Multilayer Transducers

The behavior of multilayer Barker code transducers was originally investigated by


a group of researchers at the University of Aachen about a decade ag0..7.~The
work presented here is a further extension of the results published in References
36 and 37. The data published in Reference 39 focused primarily on the application
of ultrasound pulse compression technique and have been obtained using PZT
ceramics. Also, since the transducer design described in Reference 39 required the
use of a separate transmitter and receiver, the results presented were not immediately applicable in the medical imaging field. While the work described in References 36, 37 and 39 focused mainly on the experimental approach, the work
presented here provides a more systematic insight into the factors governing Barker
code transducer performance. Attention is given to a systematic, step-by-step approach including design, construction and testing of the Barker code transducers.
In particular, the principle of operation of the multilayer Barker code transducers
(both separated3 and p u l s e - e ~ h o ~ is
. ~thoroughly
~)
explained. Also, a development
of a transducer model especially suited to simulate the performance of a complex,
multilayer transducer is described. The model takes into account the losses in PVDF
material and allows key electromechanical parameters including two-way insertion
loss, impulse response and electrical impedance of the multilayer transducer to be
calculated. Moreover, by using the model developed, the performance of the multilayer transducer both in water and in tissue-like medium can be predicted. Finally,
the relationship between folded, Barker code and pulse-echo Barker code transducers termed here as switchable Barker code transducers (SBCTs) is carefully
examined and it is shown that the SBCT approach combines advantages of both
the folded and the Barker code transducer design.

3.2.1. Principle of a Barker code transducer. The term Barker code transducers
used here refers to a specially assembled multilayer structure in which the individual
piezoelectric layers are arranged in such a way that their polarization pattern is
consistent with a Barker code pattern.40The maximum length of the Barker code
is 13.
Barker codes exhibit two important properties: First, the sidelobes of the autocorrelation function contain the minimum energy and this energy is uniformly
distributed among the side lobe^.^^ Second, the complementary code can be obtained by reversing the sign of every other element in the original
Figure 5 shows a schematic diagram of a 7 layer Barker code transmitter and
receiver. As illustrated in Figure 5a. the first three layers in the utter right of the

PVDF TRANSDUCERS AND PROBES

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Backing
Material

391

Multiple Piezoelectric
Polymer Layers

a. 7 Layer Ba~k.e$Code Transmitter


Multiple Piezoelcchic
Polymer Layers

SUIfaCe

Backing
Matcrial

L T l
b. 7 Layer Barker Code Rccciw

FIGURE 5 Schematic diagram of a 7 layer Barker code transducer: a) transmitter, b) receiver.

transmitter assembly (see Figure 5a) represent the three positive digits in the Barker
code pattern of length 7.4The next two layers with the opposite polarization
direction correspond to the two negative digits in the code pattern. Further examination of Figure 5 indicates that the polarization pattern of this 7 layer Barker
code transmitter is consistent with the Barker code pattern of length 7. Figure 5b
shows a corresponding 7 layer Barker code receiver. It is clear that the polarization
pattern of the receiver mirrors that of the transmitter.
Figure 6 illustrates the operation principle of the Barker code transducer. More
specifically, when an excitation voltage is applied to the transmitter, an acoustic
wave is generated in each individual piezoelectric layer (see Figure 6; all layers
have identical thickness). To simplify the analysis, it is assumed that the interrogated
medium is linear and lossless. The generated acoustic pulses are launched into the
medium with a delay governed by the propagation time of an acoustic wave through
a given number of piezoelectric layers. When the transmitted waves arrive at the
surface of the Barker code receiver, they sequentially generate electrical voltage
in each individual piezoelectric layer in the receiving assembly. Since the polari-

392

0. ZHANG and P. A. LEWIN

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Barker Code
Transmitter

BarkcrCode
Receiver

zation pattern of the receiver mirrors that of the transmitter (see Figure 6), there
will be a time, say t = t p , when each of the individual acoustic waves or pulses
launched will reach its corresponding receiving layer. When this occurs, the voltage
generated in each individual layer will exhibit the same polarity. Consequently,
the output voltage produced at the terminals of the Barker code receiver will be
n times larger than that generated within a single layer (see Figure 6). At all other
times, the voltage generated in each individual layer exhibits different polarity and
some of the voltages will be canceled out. The remaining voltages will manifest
themselves as ripples in the output waveform of the Barker code transducer (see
Figure 6).
It is worth noting that in the Barker code transducer, the multiple piezoelectric
layers are connected electrically in series (see Figure 6). Hence, the static capacitance observed from the electrical port of the Barker code transducer is approximately Co/n, where n is the number of active PVDF layers and Co is the static
capacitance of a single PVDF layer in the assembly. Consequently, the electrical
impedance of a Barker code transducer is approximately n times higher than that
of a single layer PVDF transducer.
Also, it should be pointed out that in the Barker code transducer, the excitation
voltage is applied across the stack of the multiple films. Consequently, the electrical
field across the transducer structure decreases with increasing number of the layers.
Since the acoustic pressure generated by an individual piezoelectric layer is directly
proportional to the electrical field applied, such decrease will result in reduced
transmitting sensitivity. Therefore, the gain in sensitivity achieved using Barker
code approach is offset partly due to the reduced electrical field across the multilayer
structure and partly because of the poor electrical matching between Barker code
transducer and the voltage excitation source.
Despite the drawbacks discussed previously Barker code transducer design is

PVDF TRANSDUCERS AND PROBES

393

attractive because the resonance frequency of the transducer assembly is determined by the thickness of a single piezopolymer layer, and transducer operates in
the off-resonance mode.34,35This feature was utilized in the development of a
wideband pulse-echo imaging transducer described in the next section.

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3.3. Switchable Barker Code Transducers


In the following, it will be shown that a modified or switchable Barker code transducer combines the advantages of both folded and Barker code transducers. As a
result, the transducer design examined exhibits twice the bandwidth of that achievable with a conventional resonant PZT transducer design. Also, the modified
Barker code transducer provides pulse-echo sensitivity comparable to that achievable with the optimized conventional PZT or PZT composite transducers.
As already mentioned in section 3.2.1, a Barker code can be converted into its
complementary code by reversing the sign of every other element in the original
This feature forms the basis of the switchable pulse-echo Barker code
transducer described here. Figure 7 illustrates schematically the operation principle
of such transducer. As shown in Figure 7, the multiple piezoelectric layers are

I-

a Switchable Barkcr Codc Transducer


EquivalentTransmimr

b. Equivalentpolarization pattern
of a SBCT transmiFtcr

Equivalent Receiver

c. Equivalent polarization pattern


of a SBCI' receiver

polarizationdirection
Vt - excitation voltage , Vr - received voltage

FIGURE 7 A schematic diagram of a 7 layer switchable Barker code transducer (SBCT).

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394

0. ZHANG and P. A . LEWIN

stacked according to a Barker code pattern; again, Barker code of length 7 is used.
The switches are connected to each individual piezoelectric layer in the following
way. During the transmitting period, the switches are set to on position. The
resulting equivalent polarization pattern of the transducer is shown in Figure 7b.
Since each individual piezoelectric layer is connected electrically in parallel and
acoustically in series, the electrical impedance of the transmitter is similar to that
of a folded transducer. Also, because the excitation voltage is applied directly to
each individual piezoelectric layer, the overall electrical field applied to the transmitter is n times higher compared to that experienced by a Barker code transmitter
described in section 3.2.1. Hence, the transmitting sensitivity of the switchable
Barker code transducer is proportional to the number of layers in the assembly.
In the receiving mode, the switches are set to off position, and the equivalent
transducer configuration is shown in Figure 7c. It is worth noting that the multiple
piezoelectric layers are connected electrically in series during the receiving period.
Therefore, the transducer presents a high impedance to the receiving circuit. Accordingly, in the following discussion, to ensure maximum pulse-echo sensitivity,
it was assumed that the switchable Barker code transducer was excited by a 50 i2
voltage source and loaded with a 1 Mi2 resistance. In practice, 1 Mi2 input resistance
can be easily obtained by inserting a voltage follower circuit between the transducer
assembly and connecting cable. This solution is further discussed in the concluding
section.
It is well known that in the conventional, resonant transducer design, the use of
lossy backing material improves the transducers bandwidth at the expense of its
sensitivity. To examine the influence of the backing material on the SBCTs performance, simulations were carried out using light (acoustic impedance Z = 2.3
MR), matched (Z = 4.5 MR) and heavy (Z = 30 MR) backing materials. The
simulation results indicated that the acoustic impedance of the backing material
had no influence on the sensitivity of the switchable Barker code transducer. However, the use of light and heavy backing resulted in distortions in the pulse-echo
waveform and prolonged the pulse duration. Therefore, the simulation results of
SBCTs presented later were obtained using matched backing material, i.e. the
acoustic impedance of the backing material was identical to that of the piezoelectrically active PVDF material (Z = 4.5 MR).
Since the use of the resonant PZT ceramic transducers is, at present, predominant
in diagnostic ultrasound imaging, the performance of the SBCT was compared with
that of an optimized PZT transducer. In particular, the switchable Barker code
transducer simulated here used eleven P(VDF-TrFE) copolymer layers and was
backed by a piezoelectrically inactive P(VDF-TrFE) rod. The thickness of a single
copolymer layer was 120 p n which corresponds to 10 MHz resonance frequency.
It is worth noting that the switchable Barker code transducer operates in offresonance mode, and its center frequency is 5 MHz. In addition, the Barker code
transducer simulated was excited by a 50 R voltage source and terminated with a
1 Ma resistance in the receiving mode to maximize its pulse-echo sensitivity.
The resonant PZT transducer simulated was air backed and used two quarter
wavelength front matching layers for optimum performance. The acoustic impedance of these matching layers was chosen based on the procedure suggested in
Reference 42. To facilitate direct comparison between the two designs considered,

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PVDF TRANSDUCERS AND PROBES

395

the PZT transducer operated at the center (resonance) frequency of 5 MHz and
was excited by a 50 R voltage source and loaded with the identical resistance in
receiving mode.
Figure 8 compares the computer simulations of electrical impedance, two-way
insertion loss and pulse-echo impulse response of switchable Barker code transducer
and the optimized PZT transducer. 'The simulations were carried out for the following data set: ~ . P Z T= 0.497 kr.P(VDF-TrFE) = 0.33 Q ~ . P Z T = 7 6 . 9 7 Qm.P(VDF-TrFE)
= 20. It can be seen that both PZT and SBCT transducers exhibit the electrical
impedance on the order of 50 R in the vicinity of the center frequency of 5 MHz
(see Figure 8a). It should be noted that the - 6 dB bandwidth of the SBCT is much
wider than that of the PZT transducer (7.8 MHz vs 2.8 MHz). In addition, the
peak amplitude of the pulse-echo impulse response of the SBCT transducer is about
6 dB higher than that of the PZT transducer ( - 15.6 dB re lV(Rx)/V(Tx) vs -21.9
dB re lV(Rx)/V(Tx)). However, the minimum insertion loss of the SBCT appears
to be 4 dB higher in comparison with that of the optimized PZT transducer. This
is because the PZT transducer used matched electrical loads (50 R, 50 R), while
the SBCT was loaded with 50 R in the transmitting and 1 MR in the receiving
mode, respectively. Further reduction of the insertion loss of the SBCT is possible
by inserting a voltage follower circuit in the immediate vicinity of the transducer
assembly.
In conclusion, the computer simulation results presented here indicate that the
Electrical Impedance

Electlid Impedance

2-Way Insation Loss

2-Way Impulse Response


0.20

O ' l 5 I
0.10

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0.5

---

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1.0

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SBCT

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2.0

2.5

3.0

'
3.5

(us)

FIGURE 8 Properties of 11-layer SBCT and an optimized PZT transducer: a) electrical impedance,
b) two-way insertion loss, c) pulse-echo impulse response.

396

Q. ZHANG and P. A. LEWIN

switchable Barker code transducers exhibit sensitivity comparable to that achievable


with the optimized PZT transducer and bandwidth equivalent to that of a single
layer PVDF transducer. In the following, the pulse-echo characteristics of the
switchable Barker code transducers obtained with different excitation signals are
presented. The results are compared with those obtained from the optimized PZT
transducer.

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4. COMPUTER SIMULATIONS
As already mentioned, the use of a wideband transducer allows frequency tailored
operation. In the following, the feasibility of using a SBCT with both spike and
multiple frequency excitation is examined, and the performance of the switchable
Barker code transducer is compared with that achievable with an equivalent, optimized PZT transducer. Also, a behavior of these transducers in both lossy and
lossless media is analyzed.

Spike excitation: Since spike excitation is widely used in ultrasound imaging systems, this excitation was simulated first. Figure 9 presents the SBCT and PZT
transducer pulse-echo responses when a spike excitation was used. It can be seen
that SBCT's - 6 dB pulse duration is 4.5times shorter (0.1 ps vs 0.45 ps) and - 20
dB pulse duration is 15% shorter (1 ~s vs 1.15 ps) in comparison with the one
achievable with the resonant PZT transducer. Consequently, SBCT characteristics
are more advantageous for medical imaging applications than those of the PZT
transducer. It is worth noting that the overall sensitivity of the SBCT is approximately 12 dB higher than that of the PZT transducer, which appears to be somewhat
inconsistent with the corresponding data discussed in section 3. There, the peak
amplitude of SBCT's impulse response was only 6 dB higher in comparison with
that of the resonant PZT transducer. This apparent inconsistency can be explained
with reference to Figure 10 which shows a relevant set of computer predicted data.
As shown in Figure 10a, a large amount of excitation energy is comprised in the
low frequency range, where the spectrum of the PZT transducer shows significantly
lower sensitivity (see right side of the Figure lob). Therefore, the PZT transducer
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PVDF TRANSDUCERS AND PROBES

397

Excitation Spectrum (Spike)


20
16

10

0
-5

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-10

Two-way Transfa Function (SBCT)

+ I

I . , , I ,

, I . . . I , .

10

10

FIGURE 10 Comparison of the SBCT and PZT transducers: a) spectrum of spike-like excitation
signal, b) two-way transfer function of SBCT (left) and PZT (right) transducer, respectively and c)
pulse-echo spectrum of SBCT (left) and PZT (right) transducer, respectively.

generates lower output voltage. In contrast, the switchable Barker code transducer
exhibits much wider bandwidth and the low frequency content of the spike spectrum
falls within the SBCT bandwidth. Consequently, the SBCT produces higher output.
Monocycle sine wave excitation: Figure 11 illustrates the pulse-echo responses of
the SBCT and PZT transducers obtained with monocycle sine wave excitations.
The 3.5 MHz, 5 MHz and 7.5 MHz frequencies were chosen as they represent the
most often used frequencies in medical ultrasound imaging.
Examination of the plots presented in Figure 11 shows that the sensitivity of the

398

Q. ZHANG and P. A . LEWIN

who response (SBCT, 3.5MHz)

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-6dE PW:0.28 us
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FIGURE I 1 Pulse-echo responses of SBCT and PZT transducers at 3.5, 5.0 and 7.5 MHz monocycle
sine wave excitation: a) SBCT vs PZT at 3.5 MHz, b) SBCT vs PZT at 5.0 MHz and c) SBCT vs PZT
at 7.5 MHz.

SBCT stays practically constant (approximately, - 10 dB) when the frequency of


the monocycle excitation signal increases from 3.5 to 7.5 MHz. In contrast, for the
same excitation, the peak output of the PZT transducer decreases from - 16.4 dB
to -21.3 dB. Also, it appears that the SBCT can be used in the 2-10 MHz
frequency range while the PZT transducer cannot be operated below 2 MHz and
above 8 MHz (see Figure lob). Finally, the SBCT exhibits a shorter pulse duration
than that produced by the PZT transducer (see Figure 11). It is worth noting that
this shorter pulse duration would result in a better axial resolution of the ultrasound
image. Accordingly, the switchable Barker code transducer is more suitable for

PVDF TRANSDUCERS AND PROBES

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frequency tailored operation. Such operation allows a potential improvement in


clinical diagnosis by optimizing image resolution and penetration depth.

Tksue influence: Since tissue is the medium of immediate interest in the medical
ultrasonic applications, the performance of the SBCT and the PZT transducer was
also examined when a 10 cm thick tissue layer was loading the front plate of the
SBCT transducer. The excitation signal used was a 5 MHz monocycle sine wave
and attenuation coefficient of tissue was assumed to be 0.5 dB/cmMHz. The simulation results are presented in Figure 12.
The results of Figure 12 indicate that the sensitivity of the SBCT is approximately
15 dB higher in comparison with that obtained from the PZT transducer. This can
be readily explained based on the difference in the bandwidth of the transducers
(see Figure 10). It is well known that the frequency dependent attenuation in tissue
causes the acoustic spectrum to be shifted to the lower frequencies. This spectrum
shift dramatically decreases the acoustic energy detected by the PZT transducer.
In contrast, the wide bandwidth of the SBCT allows full reception of the down
shifted acoustic spectrum. Therefore, the output of the SBCT is much higher than
that of the PZT transducer.
In conclusion, it was shown that the switchable Barker code transducer can be
driven by a variety of excitation signals such as spike-like pulse and monocycle
sine waves. The SBCT exhibits uniform sensitivity independent of driving signal
frequency, while the PZT transducer shows frequency dependent sensitivity in the
3.5-7.5 MHz frequency range. Also, the SBCT shows much shorter pulse duration
than that obtained with the PZT transducer, which facilitates an improvement in
the axial resolution of the ultrasound image. Finally, the switchable Barker code
transducer shows excellent performance when the tissue layer is included.
The results of the simulations presented previously support the notion that
the proposed switchable Barker code transducer may form a viable alternative to
currently used PZT ceramic or composite transducers. In the next section, construction and testing results of the prototypes of the Barker code transducers are
presented.

0. ZHANG and P. A. LEWIN

400

5 . CONSTRUCTION AND TESTING

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Initial verification of the simulation results described previously was carried out
using a prototype of a three layer Barker code transmitter and receiver. Three
layer construction was initially chosen as it minimized complexity and accelerated
fabrication of the transducer. A detailed description of the transducer construction
and experimental setup used for testing can be found in Reference 34. Figure 13a
shows a waveform generated by a three layer SBCT transducer and measured by
a PVDF needle hydrophone .6 For comparison, the corresponding waveform obtained from the computer simulations is also shown in Figure 13b. A good agreement between the experimental data and computer simulations can be seen. The
noise observed was traced to be due to an inadequate electrical shielding.
Based on the experimental results obtained with the three layer Barker code
transducer, the fabrication technique was extended to the construction of a seven
layer BCT. Figure 14 compares the measured and predicted waveforms of the seven
layer Barker code transmitter. Again, it can be seen that the measured waveform
....

................................

. ......

.......

FIGURE 13 Transmitted waveforms of the three layer barker code transducer: a) needle-hydrophone
measured waveform at the distance equal to 5 mm, b) predicted waveform at the distance equal to 5
mm.

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'

PVDF TRANSDUCERS AND PROBES

401

is in a good agreement with the one predicted by the simulations. As mentioned


previously, the noise observed is due to the inadequate electrical shielding.
In the next section, conclusions of this work are presented together with the
suggestions for the future work.

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6. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS


Practical applications of PVDF polymers in biomedical ultrasonics were presented.
The applications discussed encompass both miniature hydrophone probes for
sensing ultrasonic fields and a new generation of non-resonant pulse-echo imaging
transducers. The miniature PVDF ultrasonic hydrophone probes are already well
established in the ultrasonic exposimetry applications in the frequency range 1-20
MHz. However, the finite aperture of the hydrophone probes affects precision of
the measurements due to the spatial averaging effects. At present, it appears that
the minimization of these effects would require use of pressure sensors employing
fiber optic techno log^.^^
The multilayer PVDF transducer structure discussed here represents a relatively
new approach to the pulse-echo imaging transducer design. This non-resonant
design provides exceptionally wide bandwidth and is suitable for operation at the
clinically relevant frequencies. The design describes uses multiple active piezopolymer layers arranged according to a Barker code pattern and was adapted for
pulse-echo imaging. The operation principle of the switchable Barker code transducer (SBCT) was outlined and the computer simulation results indicated that not
only SBCT's pulse-echo sensitivity is on a par with that achievable with the resonant
PZT or PZT composite transducer design but also the bandwidth achievable with
SBCTs is twice as large as that exhibited by the conventional imaging scanheads.
Also, it was demonstrated that the SBCT can be driven by virtually any excitation
signal. In particular, the SBCT exhibits uniform pulse-echo response when driven
by different frequencies of monocycle sine wave. This indicates that in comparison
with the currently used imaging transducers, the SBCTs are more suitable for
frequency tailored operation. Such operation allows a potential improvement in
clinical diagnosis by optimizing image resolution at a given penetration depth. In
addition, simulations which examined the influence of tissue layer showed that the
SBCT would outperform the ceramic PZT transducer in terms of axial resolution
and sensitivity. This is because the wide bandwidth of the SBCT would allow full
reception of the downshifted acoustic spectrum.
To verify the computer simulation results, several three and seven layer Barker
code transducers were fabricated and tested. The experimental results were found
to be in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.
A high electrical impedance of the SBCT in the receive mode of the operation
can be effectively addressed by placing a voltage follower in the immediate vicinity
of the transducer. This voltage follower will convert high transducer impedance
into 50 R output impedance to match that of the coaxial cable.
Once optimized, the non-resonant switchable Barker code transducers could
provide an attractive alternative to the conventional resonant design of PZT ceramic
or PZT composite scanheads. In particular, the availability of such non-resonant

Q. ZHANG and P. A. LEWIN

402

wideband transducers would allow the image resolution and penetration depth to
be tailored to the clinical needs, and thus provide a basis for the more accurate
diagnosis.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported in part by the NIH grant 2 PO1 CA52823-04Al.

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