Ultrasonics 49 (2009) 495–498

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Ultrasonics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ultras

Ultrasonic imaging using air-coupled P(VDF/TrFE) transducers at 2 MHz

Sadayuki Takahashi a,*, Hiroji Ohigashi b
a
Faculty of Education, Arts and Science, Yamagata University, Kojirakawa-cho 1-4-12, Yamagata 990-8560, Japan
b
Toyota Physical and Chemical Research Institute, Nagakute, Aichi 480-1192, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A reflection non-contact ultrasonic microscope system working both in amplitude and phase difference
Received 10 April 2007 modes at 2 MHz has been developed using an air-coupled concave transducer made of piezoelectric poly-
Received in revised form 19 December 2007 mer films of poly(vinylidene fluoride/trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF/TrFE)]. The transducer is composed of
Accepted 15 October 2008
three 95 lm-thick P(VDF/TrFE) films stacked together, each of which is activated electrically in parallel
Available online 12 January 2009
by a driving source. The transducer has a wide aperture angle of 140° and a focal length of 10 mm.
The measured two-way transducer insertion loss is 80 dB at 1.83 MHz. Despite 20 dB higher insertion loss
PACS:
than that estimated from Mason’s equivalent circuit, we have obtained clear amplitude acoustic images
43.28.Tc
43.38.Fx
of a coin with transverse resolution of 150 lm, and clear phase difference acoustic images of the rough
43.35.Sx surface of a paper currency bill with depth resolution of sub-micrometer. Using two planar transducers of
P(VDF/TrFE), we have also successfully measured in through-transmission mode the sound velocity and
Keywords: absorption of a 3 mm-thick silicone-rubber plate. The present study proves that, owing to its low acoustic
Piezoelectric polymer transducer impedance and flexibility, P(VDF/TrFE) piezoelectric film is very useful for high frequency acoustic imag-
P(VDF/TrFE) ing in air in the MHz range.
Air-coupled ultrasonic transducer Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Ultrasonic imaging in air

1. Introduction
Ultrasonic imaging and inspection using ultrasound propagat-
ing in air in the MHz range has been actively studied in recent
years, owing to significant advantages for inspection of objects
incompatible with liquid couplants (water or gels), such as paper
products, electronic products etc. In addition, ultrasound imaging
in air is advantageous because the position of the transducers
can be set freely. Furthermore, imaging in air provides much higher
resolution than in water because sound wavelength is shorter in air
at a given frequency. However, there are two difficulties in trans-
mitting and receiving ultrasound propagating in the air at high fre-
quencies: (1) transducer efficiency decreases extremely due to
large acoustic impedance mismatching between transducers and
air. The situation is also pertains when ultrasound in air is trans-
mitted to the interfaces between air and the object materials under
inspection. (2) Attenuation of ultrasonic energy in air is about three
orders of magnitude larger than in water at 1 MHz [1]. Despite
such difficulties, Khuri-Yakub et al. first demonstrated ultrasonic
scanning images at 2 MHz using an air-coupled PZT transducer
[2]. Piezoelectric polymer P(VDF/TrFE) has an acoustic impedance
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81 23 628 4378.
E-mail address: takahasi@kekexafs.kj.yamagata-u.ac.jp (S. Takahashi).
much smaller than PZT, and the highest electromechanical cou-
pling factor kt among piezoelectric polymers (kt  0.3) [3].
We have developed air-coupled ultrasonic transducers using
P(VDF/TrFE) piezoelectric films, along with a two-dimensional
scanning acoustic microscope system for operating P(VDF/TrFE)
transducers. The acoustic image and phase acoustic image were
formed by the P(VDF/TrFE) transducers in this ultrasonic experi-
ment system. It is confirmed from the experimental results that
the P(VDF/TrFE) transducer is very effective as a transducer of
ultrasonic waves in air.
2. Acoustic air transducer
Fig. 1 shows a photograph of the concave type P(VDF/TrFE) air-
coupled ultrasonic transducer. This transducer is composed of
three 90 lm-thick P(VDF/TrFE) films bonded together on a Cu-
plate electrode backed with a polymer substrate. These films were
stacked so that the polarization direction of each alternate film is
reversed. The Al-electrodes were metallized on the surfaces of each
P(VDF/TrFE) film, through which the RF-field can be applied di-
rectly from the electric source to vibrate in the same phase as other
two piezoelectric films. With this configuration of P(VDF/TrFE)
films, the electric impedance matching between the transducer
and the electric source is much improved (by a factor of 32) as
compared to transducers with a single P(VDF/TrFE) film 270 lm

0041-624X/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ultras.2008.10.020
496 S. Takahashi, H. Ohigashi / Ultrasonics 49 (2009) 495–498

thick. The focused P(VDF/TrFE) transducer in Fig. 1 has a wide
angular aperture of 140° to improve the angular (transverse) reso-
lution of the acoustic image. P(VDF/TrFE) film has an advantage
that a concave transducer with wide aperture angle can be fabri-
cated because of its flexibility. The frequency dependence of two-
way insertion loss (2transducer-loss) observed for two planar type
transducers made of three P(VDF/TrFE) films with the same config-
uration as the concave transducer is shown in Fig. 2, where the
insertion loss is defined by the ratio of output acoustic power in
air to the input electric power. The transducer insertion loss
(2TL) of the planar type transducers is about 20 dB larger at
2 MHz compared to the value calculated using the Mason’s equiv-
alent circuit [4,5]. The increased insertion loss may be attributed to

Pulse
Generator

Frequency Power
Switch
Synthesizer Amp

Oscillo- Small signal

scope Amp P(VDF/TrFE)
Transducer

Personal Pulse-motor
Computer Driver XYZ Stage
Fig. 1. A photograph of a P(VDF/TrFE) concave transducer.

Fig. 3. Block diagram of the air-coupled amplitude imaging system.

100

80
Loss (dB)

60
Observed(2TL ) Calculated(2TL )
40

20
1 .5 1 .6 1 .7 1 .8 1 .9 2 2 .1

Frequency (MHz)

Fig. 2. Measured (open circles) and calculated (closed square dot) frequency
dependence of two-way insertion loss (2TL) for planar type P(VDF/TrFE) air-coupled Fig. 4. Air-ultrasonic image (left) of a commemorative coin at 2 MHz and its
transducers. photograph (right).

Pulse
Generator

Frequency Switch Attenutor RF Power

Synthesizer Amp
TD

Local Small Signal

Mixer Amp
Oscillator
XYZ

P hase Mixer IF
Detector Amp

Oscillo-
Scope

Fig. 5. Block diagram of the air-coupled phase imaging system.

 S. Takahashi, H. Ohigashi / Ultrasonics 49 (2009) 495–498 497

100 mV

Intensity
0
0 0.09 5 0.19 0 (mm)

Fig. 8. Phase output signal intensity of a 1.83 MHz wave in air measured by the
system in Fig. 5 as a function of distance difference between the two planar
transducers.

air-coupled focused transducer shown in Fig. 1. The continuous

Fig. 6. (a) Ultrasonic phase image of part of a 2000-yen bill (10  25 mm) obtained
by the system displayed in Fig. 5. (b) Amplitude image from the system in Fig. 3.
insufficient bonding between the three P(VDF/TrFE) films. P(VDF/
TrFE) transducers with insertion loss of about 60 dB or less can
be fabricated by overcoming this problem.
3. Ultrasonic imaging system working with air-coupled P(VDF/
TrFE) Transducers
3.1. Amplitude imaging
Fig. 3 shows the block diagram of the ultrasonic system con-
structed for obtaining amplitude reflection images utilizing the
wave from the frequency synthesizer was converted by a gate-
switch to a burst wave, the voltage of which was amplified by a
power amp up to 400 Vpp. The high voltage burst wave was sent
to the transducer to transmit burst acoustic waves, and the echo
signal from an object sample on the stage was detected by the
same transducer. The mechanical scanning width driven by the
pulse motors for obtaining pulse echo images was 100 lm/step.
This ultrasonic system was controlled by a personal computer pro-
gram. Fig. 4 shows the amplitude acoustic image of a coin (Nagano
Olympic-Games Commemorative Coin) obtained with this system
at 2 MHz in air. The transverse resolution of the imaging system
is about 150 lm, which is somewhat worse than the theoretical
resolution (115 lm), probably due to a bonding problem and
mechanical stepping length.

a b

(1 ),(2 ),(3 ) (1 ) (2 ) (3 )

+30.0
(2)
+17.5
Height (µm)

+5.0 (1) (3)

c
-7.5

-20.0
0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60
Distance (mm)
Fig. 7. The height-scanning signal of the convex side of the printed part measured by an interference microscope. The corresponding microscope image of the scanning part is
shown in (a) optical microscope image, and (b) interference microscope image.
498 S. Takahashi, H. Ohigashi / Ultrasonics 49 (2009) 495–498
Silicone rubber plate
Burst-wave
Fig. 9. Observed waveform of an air ultrasonic burst (2 MHz) transmitted through a
silicone-rubber plate (3 mm-thick).
3.2. Phase difference imaging
Fig. 5 shows the phase difference imaging system. The phase
difference image of a section (10  25 mm) of a 2000-yen currency
bill is shown in Fig. 6(a), and its amplitude image is shown in
Fig. 6(b) for comparison. Both images (a) and (b) are obtained by
the echo signals of ultrasound at 1.83 MHz in air. Fig. 7 shows
the height (22 lm) of the convex side of the printed part as mea-
sured by an interference microscope. Fig. 8 shows the plots of
the phase difference of the output signal of the planar type
P(VDF/TrFE) receiving transducer as a function of the displacement
of the transducer in the direction parallel to sound wave propaga-
tion at 1.83 MHz. The sinusoidal signal in Fig. 8 shows that the
ultrasound wavelength is 0.190 mm. Consequently, the acoustic
wave velocity in air is derived to be 348 m/s.
4. High frequency through-transmission ultrasonic system
Detection of high frequency ultrasonic waves, which have
passed through an object to be studied by an air-coupled trans-
ducer, is more difficult than the above imaging. This is because
in addition to the large insertion loss due to acoustic impedance
mismatching between transducers and air, there is large reflection
loss due to impedance mismatching between air and the object. To
overcome such difficulties, it is effective to increase the sensitivity
of transmitting and receiving transducers by adding matching lay-
ers on transducer surfaces, and also to excite the transmitting
transducer with a burst signal of higher voltage. In the present
study, we tried to increase the excitation voltage up to about
800 Vpp. Fig. 9 shows the signal waveform of ultrasonic waves
passing through a 3 mm-thick silicone-rubber plate, that was
placed in the air between two flat-type P(VDF/TrFE) transducers
(the transducer efficiency is shown in Fig. 2). An output waveform
from the function generator is a burst of 6-cycles. We could suc-
cessfully detect multi-reflection waves within the silicone-rubber
plate. From the received signal, we determined the acoustic veloc-
ity and absorption in the silicone-rubber to be 951 m/s and 4.5 dB/
cm, respectively. We observed similar transmission signals passing
through Al-foils (10 lm-thick) and polystyrene plates (1.5 mm-
thick). If we add a quarter-wavelength silicone-rubber layer to
the surface of the P(VDF/TrFE) transducer as an impedance match-
ing layer, we expect a 4 dB increase in two-way transducer sensi-
tivity in air at 2 MHz.
5. Conclusion
A reflection acoustic microscope system comprising P(VDF/
TrFE) transducers was constructed. High-resolution images were
obtained at 2 MHz in air in both the amplitude and phase mode.
With two air-coupled P(VDF/TrFE) transmitting and receiving
transducers, we have shown that this acoustic imaging system is
also capable of detecting in-air acoustic waves passing through
polymer plates. The results show that P(VDF/TrFE) piezoelectric
polymer is very useful for air-coupled ultrasonic transducers work-
ing at high frequency (2 MHz) owing to its low acoustic imped-
ance, flexibility, and low Q-figure, although insertion loss is still
large. However, using impedance matching layers insertion loss
can be decreased by at least 4 dB. High-resolution acoustic images
can be expected in the future with the development of high fre-
quency P(VDF/TrFE) transducers with sensitivity of 50 dB and
improvement in the driving and receiving electronics [6].
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the members of the Device Group at
Toray Engineering Co., Ltd. for their valuable advice on manufac-
turing the transducers. This work was partly supported by a
Grant-in-Aid for Science Research (No. 17560041) from the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science.
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