Multilayer ceramics and composites for ultrasonic imaging arrays

This paper describes enhancing transducer performance by simultaneously improving both acoustical impedance matching between the piezoelectric material and the tissue being imaged and electrical impedance matching between the piezoelectric material and the system electronics. Transducers fabricated with multilayer composites show a 3 dB increase in TR amplitude, over a 6 dB improvement in insertion loss, and an 18% increase in bandwidth relative to similar ceramic transducers.