Single-beam acoustic tweezers (SBAT), used in laboratory-on-a-chip (LOC) device has promising implications for an individual micro-particle contactless manipulation. In this study, a freestanding hydrothermal PZT thick film with excellent piezoelectric property (d33 = 270pC/N and kt = 0.51) was employed for SBAT applications and a press-focusing technology was introduced. The obtained SBAT, acting at an operational frequency of 50MHz, a low f-number (∼0.9), demonstrated the capability to trap and manipulate a micro-particle sized 10μm in the distilled water. These results suggest that such a device has great potential as a manipulator for a wide range of biomedical and chemical science applications.

Novel anti-cavitation hydrophones were fabricated by depositing a hydrothermally synthesized lead zirconate titanate polycrystalline film on the back of a titanium plate. These hydrophones were not damaged by the measurement of the acoustic field formed by a high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) device. The hydrophones were designed using Mason’s equivalent circuit and by numerical simulation to improve their receiving characteristics for the measurement of the HIFU device. High receiving sensitivity with flat frequency characteristics was obtained by using a backing material with a specific acoustic impedance of about 20 × 106 kg/(m2 s) [Rayl]. We developed a new type of hydrophone using a tin and titanium rods as backing materials, which have specific acoustic impedances of 24 × 106 and 27 × 106 kg/(m2 s), respectively. The fabricated anti-cavitation hydrophone showed wide frequency characteristics of the receiving sensitivity. Furthermore, we observed the output waveform with distortion due to nonlinear propagation using the fabricated anti-cavitation hydrophone. This hydrophone was not damaged by exposure to a high-intensity acoustic field of an ultrasound cleaner under acoustic cavitation for duration of about ten times longer than the conventional commercial hydrophone.

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In previous works, our developed tough hydrophone was resistant to high-pressure fields (15 MPa). During the experiment, acoustic cavitation bubbles were generated around the tough hydrophone tip, because the tip was slightly larger than the wavelength and was flat. In this study, the influence of the tough hydrophone on high-intensity 1 MHz and 22 kHz acoustic fields was investigated by visualizing bubbles around the hydrophone and recording the waveform from the hydrophone at the same time. As a result, the hydrophone with a flat tip can be used for measurements in 1 MHz and 22 kHz high-intensity acoustic fields under certain conditions where acoustic bubble cloud generation on the hydrophone tip is avoided. The change in output waveforms from the hydrophone was negligibly small, even when collision and sticking of the acoustic bubble to the hydrophone tip occurred.