Electromechanical performance comparison for different CMUT element geometries

Abstract

Different capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) element geometries and fabrication techniques have been proposed through the years though the questions of which element geometry suits each application best as well as further geometrical, array and design parameter optimization techniques still remain open. This paper proposes a thorough comparison between square, hexagonal and circular CMUT elements and geometries through finite element method (FEM) simulations and provides results comparing their respective electromechanical parameters.

A Computational Model for Large-Amplitude Nonlinear Vibration of Circular Cmuts Under Primary Resonance

“…The vibration of the top electrode is due to the combination of the two electrostatic forces: a DC voltage deflects the microplate downward, and an AC voltage added to the bias voltage causing the vibration of the membrane which produces ultrasound waves. Several CMUT geometries have been proposed in the literature and Mendoza-Lopez et al [5] proved that a circular CMUT has the highest displacement for the same voltage excitation.…”