Use of sputtered zinc oxide film on aluminium foil substrate to produce a flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer

Ruozhou Hou; Yong Qing Fu; David Hutson; Chao Zhao; Esteban H. Gimenez; Katherine Kirk

doi:10.1016/j.ultras.2016.02.008

Use of sputtered zinc oxide film on aluminium foil substrate to produce a flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer

Ruozhou Hou, Yong Qing Fu, David Hutson, Chao Zhao, Esteban H. Gimenez, Katherine Kirk

Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer was fabricated for non-destructive testing (NDT) applications by DC sputtering of 3 μm thick, c-axis oriented, ZnO film on 50 μm aluminium foil. Due to the thin foil-based construction, the transducer can be applied to curved objects and used in sites of restricted accessibility. The device has been used to demonstrate detection of simulated defects in a 45 mm diameter steel pipe, and for thickness measurement on a 3.1 mm thick flat carbon steel plate. Centre frequency measured on the flat plate was 24 29 MHz, with - 6dB bandwidth 4-7 MHz. The pulse duration depended on the couplant, at best 3 cycles or 0.12 μs using SONO Ultragel or epoxy couplant. Transducer performance was found to be comparable to a commercial 10 MHz piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	54-60
Journal	Ultrasonics
Volume	68
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultras.2016.02.008
Publication status	Published - May 2016

Keywords

zinc oxide
thin film
DC sputtering
flexible ultrasonic transducer
nondestructive testing

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10.1016/j.ultras.2016.02.008

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title = "Use of sputtered zinc oxide film on aluminium foil substrate to produce a flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer",

abstract = "A flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer was fabricated for non-destructive testing (NDT) applications by DC sputtering of 3 μm thick, c-axis oriented, ZnO film on 50 μm aluminium foil. Due to the thin foil-based construction, the transducer can be applied to curved objects and used in sites of restricted accessibility. The device has been used to demonstrate detection of simulated defects in a 45 mm diameter steel pipe, and for thickness measurement on a 3.1 mm thick flat carbon steel plate. Centre frequency measured on the flat plate was 24 29 MHz, with - 6dB bandwidth 4-7 MHz. The pulse duration depended on the couplant, at best 3 cycles or 0.12 μs using SONO Ultragel or epoxy couplant. Transducer performance was found to be comparable to a commercial 10 MHz piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer.",

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AU - Hou, Ruozhou

AU - Fu, Yong Qing

AU - Hutson, David

AU - Zhao, Chao

AU - Gimenez, Esteban H.

AU - Kirk, Katherine

PY - 2016/5

Y1 - 2016/5

N2 - A flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer was fabricated for non-destructive testing (NDT) applications by DC sputtering of 3 μm thick, c-axis oriented, ZnO film on 50 μm aluminium foil. Due to the thin foil-based construction, the transducer can be applied to curved objects and used in sites of restricted accessibility. The device has been used to demonstrate detection of simulated defects in a 45 mm diameter steel pipe, and for thickness measurement on a 3.1 mm thick flat carbon steel plate. Centre frequency measured on the flat plate was 24 29 MHz, with - 6dB bandwidth 4-7 MHz. The pulse duration depended on the couplant, at best 3 cycles or 0.12 μs using SONO Ultragel or epoxy couplant. Transducer performance was found to be comparable to a commercial 10 MHz piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer.

AB - A flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer was fabricated for non-destructive testing (NDT) applications by DC sputtering of 3 μm thick, c-axis oriented, ZnO film on 50 μm aluminium foil. Due to the thin foil-based construction, the transducer can be applied to curved objects and used in sites of restricted accessibility. The device has been used to demonstrate detection of simulated defects in a 45 mm diameter steel pipe, and for thickness measurement on a 3.1 mm thick flat carbon steel plate. Centre frequency measured on the flat plate was 24 29 MHz, with - 6dB bandwidth 4-7 MHz. The pulse duration depended on the couplant, at best 3 cycles or 0.12 μs using SONO Ultragel or epoxy couplant. Transducer performance was found to be comparable to a commercial 10 MHz piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer.

KW - zinc oxide

KW - thin film

KW - DC sputtering

KW - flexible ultrasonic transducer

KW - nondestructive testing

U2 - 10.1016/j.ultras.2016.02.008

DO - 10.1016/j.ultras.2016.02.008

M3 - Article

SN - 0041-624X

VL - 68

SP - 54

EP - 60

JO - Ultrasonics

JF - Ultrasonics

ER -

Use of sputtered zinc oxide film on aluminium foil substrate to produce a flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer

Abstract

Keywords

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