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.

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) have been introduced as a promising technology for ultrasound imaging and therapeutic ultrasound applications which require high transmitted pressures for increased penetration, high signal-to-noise ratio, and fast heating. However, output power limitation of CMUTs compared with piezoelectrics has been a major drawback. In this work, we show that the output pressure of CMUTs can be significantly increased by deep-collapse operation, which utilizes an electrical pulse excitation much higher than the collapse voltage. We extend the analyses made for CMUTs working in the conventional (uncollapsed) region to the collapsed region and experimentally verify the findings. The static deflection profile of a collapsed membrane is calculated by an analytical approach within 0.6% error when compared with static, electromechanical finite element method (FEM) simulations. The electrical and mechanical restoring forces acting on a collapsed membrane are calculated. It is demonstrated that the stored mechanical energy and the electrical energy increase nonlinearly with increasing pulse amplitude if the membrane has a full-coverage top electrode. Utilizing higher restoring and electrical forces in the deep-collapsed region, we measure 3.5 MPa peak-to-peak pressure centered at 6.8 MHz with a 106% fractional bandwidth at the surface of the transducer with a collapse voltage of 35 V, when the pulse amplitude is 160 V. The experimental results are verified using transient FEM simulations.

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Landauer's principle states that erasure of each bit of information in a system requires at least a unit of energy kBT ln 2 to be dissipated. In return, the blank bit may possibly be utilized to extract usable work of the amount kBT ln 2, in keeping with the second law of thermodynamics. While in principle any collection of spins can be utilized as information storage, work extraction by utilizing this resource in principle requires specialized engines that are capable of using this resource. In this work, we focus on heat and charge transport in a quantum spin Hall device in the presence of a spin bath. We show how a properly initialized nuclear spin subsystem can be used as a memory resource for a Maxwell's Demon to harvest available heat energy from the reservoirs to induce charge current that can power an external electrical load. We also show how to initialize the nuclear spin subsystem using applied bias currents which necessarily dissipate energy, hence demonstrating Landauer's principle. This provides an alternative method of "energy storage" in an all-electrical device. We finally propose a realistic setup to experimentally observe a Landauer erasure/work extraction cycle.

An ultrasonic phased array device is developed to provide mobility aid for visually impaired people. To perform acoustic imaging, two different linear transducer arrays are constructed using commercially available transducers. The transmitter and receiver arrays are formed with six and four transducer elements, respectively. Individual transducer elements are discrete components with a radius of 1.9 wavelengths and a half-power beamwidth of 43 • at 40.8 kHz center frequency. The transmitter array is formed by aligning the transducers with minimum spacing between the elements. Even this placement leads to the occurrence of unwanted grating lobes in the array response and decreases the Field of View to 30 •. To eliminate these grating lobes, the elements of the receiver array are placed with a different spacing. Forming the receiver and transmitter arrays with non-identical element spacing makes the grating lobes to appear at different places. Since the response of the overall system is the product of the directivity patterns of receiver and transmitter arrays, the grating lobes diminish for the overall system and the Field of View increases. Index Terms-Phased arrays, acoustic imaging, mobility aid for blind, ultrasonic obstacle detector. Sevan Harput received the B.Sc. degree in microelectronics engineering and the M.Sc. in electronic engineering and computer sciences from Sabanci University, Turkey in 2005 and 2007, respectively. Currently he is a research assistant in the microelectronics department. His research interests include biomedical instrumentation, medical imaging and ultrasound.