Liquid metal drop ejection

The aim of this project was to demonstrate the possibility of ejecting liquid metals using drop on demand printing technology. The plan was to make transducers for operation in the 100 MHz frequency range and to use these transducers to demonstrate the ability to eject drops of liquid metals such as gallium. Two transducers were made by indium bonding piezoelectric lithium niobate to quartz buffer rods. The lithium niobate plates were thinned by mechanical polishing to a thickness of 37 microns for operation at 100 MHz. Hemispherical lenses were polished in the opposite ends of the buffer rods. The lenses, which focus the sound waves in the liquid metal, had an F-number equals 1. A mechanical housing was made to hold the transducers and to allow precise control over the liquid level above the lens. We started by demonstrating the ability to eject drops of water on demand. The drops of water had a diameter of 15 microns which corresponds to the wavelength of the sound wave in the water. A videotape of this ejection was made. We then used a mixture of Gallium and Indium (used to lower the melting temperature of the Gallium) to demonstrate the ejection of liquid metal drops. This proved to be difficult because of the oxide skin which forms on the surface of the liquid. In some instances, we were able to eject metal drops, however, this was not consistent and reproducible. An experiment was set up at NASA-Lewis to stabilize the process of drop on demand liquid metal ejection. The object was to place the transducer and liquid metal in a vacuum station so that no oxide would form on the surface. We were successful in demonstrating that liquid metals could be ejected on demand and that this technology could be used for making sheet metal in space

Low-Frequency Acoustic Microscopy

Since acoustic microscopy was first invented by Quate and Lemons,1 many workers in the field have built acoustic microscopes ranging in frequency from tens of megahertz to hundreds of gigahertz, nd for a wide variety of applications in materials characterization, integrated circuits evaluation, and medical applications. In this work, we use the acoustic microscope as a quantitative nondestructive evaluation tool, our main purpose being the detection and characterization of defects present within 1 mm of the surface of a sample

Micromachinable ultrasonic leaky wave air transducers

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Ultrasonic air transducers using leaky waves on thin membranes are analyzed using perturbation and normal mode approaches. The transducers utilize the efficient coupling of ultrasonic energy to air through radiation of these leaky wave modes when their phase velocity is close to the sound speed in air. Theoretical results on optimum transducer dimensions and bandwidth estimation show that a minimum conversion loss of 8.7 dB with a 78% fractional bandwidth is possible. Common micromachining materials are shown to be suitable transducer materials and result in feasible devices. This is demonstrated by fabricating a 580 kHz transducer using a silicon membrane bonded to a ring of PZT-5H. With this configuration the transducer is self line focusing. Results of through transmission experiments on silicon and transmission images on paper are reported. © 1998 American Institute of Physic

Acoustic Microscopy with Mixed Mode Transducers

Acoustic microscopes have become important NDE tools in recent years. For accurate and quantitative characterization, it is desirable to have a system capable of dealing with a wide variety of materials, to evaluate both bulk and surface wave properties, and to detect surface damage, subsurface cracks, bulk defects, etc. For this purpose, we have built a new and versatile acoustic microscope which measures both amplitude and phase in the frequency range of 1–200 MHz with selectable operation modes with longitudinal waves, shear waves, or both. The wide frequency range allows us to evaluate a variety of materials. The selectable operation modes enable us to measure different properties of materials and to detect different types of defects

Acoustic Surface Wave Probing of Ceramics

We have developed a low frequency theory for scattering from surface cracks. For the case of halfpenny shaped surface cracks, we are able to relate the reflection coefficient of a Rayleigh wave incident on the crack with the crack size as well as the fracture stress of a sample with the crack in it. Comparisons of the theoretical predictions for the fracture stress with the actual fracture stresses for silicon nitride samples containing cracks with estimated radii ranging from 51 μm to 274 μm show excellent agreement, with less than 16% error. A qualitative study in the high frequency regime of the reflected echos from surface cracks in silicon nitride turbine blades has also been made

Micromachined two-dimensional array piezoelectrically actuated transducers

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This letter presents micromachined two-dimensional array flextensional transducers that can be used to generate sound in air or water. Individual array elements consist of a thin piezoelectric ring and a thin, fully supported, circular membrane. We report on an optimum design for an individual array element based on finite element modeling. We manufacture the transducer in two-dimensional arrays using planar silicon micromachining and demonstrate ultrasound transmission in air at 2.85 MHz. Such an array could be combined with on-board driving and an addressing circuitry for different applications. © 1998 American Institute of Physic

Surface Acoustic Wave Probing of Ceramic Bearing Balls

This work is a continuation of our effort to develop a nondestructive technique for the detection and characterization of surface and near surface defects in ceramic bearing balls. We reported earlier on a method for detecting and sizing submicron surface depressions using a scanning acoustic microscope[1]. Our present work deals with the detection and sizing of surface cracks in the ceramic bearing balls, a problem which requires knowledge of the surface wave reflection coefficient of the crack, either at a single frequency in the long wavelength regime or as a function of frequency in the short wavelength regime. For this purpose, we need to learn the characteristics of surface wave propagation on spherical surfaces, the scattering of the surface waves from the cracks, and we need to develop a method for exciting the surface wave. We present a detailed theory of surface wave propagation on spheres. The results indicate that an arc source focuses the surface acoustic waved in a manner similar to bulk acoustic waves focusing by spherical transducers. We will present the details of this self focusing behavior. A spherical cap transducer structure similar to a planar wedge transducer is proposed to excite the spherical surface waves. We will present the details of the design of the spherical cap transducer for efficient surface wave excitation

High Frequency Ultrasonics

A high frequency 250 MHz A-scan system has been used for flaw detection. We have been able to detect 25-500 ~m defects of different types (C, Si, SIC, BN, Fe, WC) in a Si3N4 plate. Since it is difficult to determine the defect type and size from the amplitude of the backscattered signal , we have carried out Fourier transforms of the backscattered signal to obtain reflectivity as a function of frequency, and used that information to characterize the size and type of defect. Our ea~ly experiments have been with voids in glass and Si 3N4 and we are able to predict the size of the defects we detect

Theory and analysis of electrode size optimization for capacitive microfabricated ultrasonic transducers

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Theoretical analysis and computer simulations of capacitive microfabricated ultrasonic transducers indicate that device performance can be optimized through judicious patterning of electrodes. The conceptual basis of the analysis is that electrostatic force should be applied only where it is most effective, such as at the center of a circular membrane. If breakdown mechanisms are ignored, an infinitesimally small electrode with an infinite bias voltage results in the optimal transducer, A more realistic design example compares the 3-dB bandwidths of a fully metalized transducer and a partially metalized transducer, each tuned with a lossless Butterworth network. It is found that the bandwidth of the optimally metalized device is twice that of the fully metalized device