Piezoelectric composites are a class of functional materials consisting of piezoelectric active materials and non-piezoelectric passive polymers, mechanically attached together to form different connectivities. These composites have several advantages compared to conventional piezoelectric ceramics and polymers, including improved electromechanical properties, mechanical flexibility and the ability to tailor properties by using several different connectivity patterns. These advantages have led to the improvement of overall transducer performance, such as transducer sensitivity and bandwidth, resulting in rapid implementation of piezoelectric composites in medical imaging ultrasounds and other acoustic transducers. Recently, new piezoelectric composite transducers have been developed with optimized composite components that have improved thermal stability and mechanical quality factors, making them promising candidates for high temperature, high power transducer applications, such as therapeutic ultrasound, high power ultrasonic wirebonding, high temperature non-destructive testing, and downhole energy harvesting. This paper will present recent developments of piezoelectric composite technology for high temperature and high power applications. The concerns and limitations of using piezoelectric composites will also be discussed, and the expected future research directions will be outlined.

-The parameters of the KLM and Mason's equivalent circuits in the thickness mode are presented to include dielectric, elastic and piezoelectric loss. The models are compared under various boundary conditions with and without acoustic layers to the analytical solutions of the wave equation. We show that in all cases equivalence is found between the analytical solution and the KLM and Mason's equivalent circuit models. It is noted that in order to maintain consistency with the linear equations of piezoelectricity and the wave equation care is required when applying complex coefficients to the models. The effect of the piezoelectric loss component on the power dissipated in the transducer is presented for loaded and unloaded transducers to determine the significance of the piezoelectric loss to transducer designers. The effect of the piezoelectric loss on the insertion loss was found to be small.

An equivalent circuit model for the unloaded piezoelectric vibrator in the thickness mode is presented. The model contains two branches, the motional branch and the static branch, like the lossless resonator model, but the circuit elements are generalized by making each a complex constant. The mechanical, dielectric and piezoelectric losses associated with the vibrator are accounted for by the imaginary components of the circuit elements. The model produced impedance curves that closely matched the impedance calculated by using equations derived from vibration theory and the data measured for lead zirconate titanate and PVDF - TRFE co-polymer samples. The calculation of the circuit parameters from the complex elastic, dielectric and piezoelectric material constants is straightforward and the model accurately fits both the baseline dielectric behaviour and the piezoelectric resonance around and below the fundamental resonance. Conversely, when the complex circuit parameters are known, the complex material constants can be derived by straightforward calculations without any loss of information.

Electroactive polymers (EAP) are an emerging class of actuation materials. Their large electrically induced strains (longitudinal or bending), low density, mechanical flexibility, and ease of processing offer advantages over traditional electroactive materials. However, before the benefits of these materials can be exploited, their electrical and mechanical behavior must be properly quantified. Two general types of EAP can be identified. The first class is ionic EAP, which requires relatively low voltages (<10V) to achieve large bending deflections. This class usually needs to be hydrated and electrochemical reactions may occur. The second class is Electronic-EAP and it involves piezoelectric, electrostrictive and/or Maxwell stresses. These materials can require large electric fields (>100MV/m) to achieve longitudinal deformations at the range from 4 -360%. Some of the difficulties in characterizing EAP include: nonlinear properties, large compliance (large mismatch with metal electrodes), nonhomogeneity (resulting from processing) and hysteresis. To support the need for reliable data, the authors are developing characterization techniques to quantify the electroactive responses and material properties of EAP materials. The emphasis of the current study is on addressing electromechanical issues related to the ion-exchange type EAP also known as IPMC. The analysis, experiments and test results are discussed in this paper.

-JPL has a requirement for telerobotic tools for planetary sample acquisition, which require low power and have the ability to work in harsh environments. We are currently investigating the possibility of using ultrasonic horns to develop a family of ultrasonic tools for these environments. In an effort to determine control parameters a one-dimensional Mason's model for a stepped ultrasonic horn assembly was developed which includes the effects of mechanical and electrical losses in the piezoelectric material and acoustic elements. The model is separated into three regions; the piezoelectric stack including stress bolt the backing layer and the horn. The model is found to predict the impedance data of the horn assembly very accurately up to the first coupled (radial) resonance. The model also allows for the calculation of the velocity and force and power delivered to each acoustic element. FEM modeling and accelerometer data from the horn tip were used to corroborate the model. The difficulties associated with modeling the load impedance of various devices will be discussed and current directions noted.

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