Polymer-Ceramic PVDF-TrFE-BSTO Composite Synthesis for Fabricating High Frequency Ultrasound Sensors
摘要
This work demonstrates the fabrication of transducers using composite polymer-ceramic film consisting of PVDF-TrFE and BSTO (Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3). The transducer is capable of both generating, receiving and detecting high frequency ultrasound signals. The composite film using PVDF-TrFE and BSTO shows better sensitivity compared to PVDF-TrFE sensor film alone. The composite film was fabricated using a dry and drop casting method and characterized the sensor film using FTIR spectroscopy to optimize the functionality. The central acoustic frequency of the fabricated transducer is found to be 39 MHz in pulse echo mode with a large bandwidth of more than 33 MHz i.e. 84% of central frequency at −6 dB. The central frequency and its bandwidth are very high compared to commercially available ceramic based transducers. Due to its high frequency and large bandwidth, the transducer is suitable for high resolution ultrasound imaging, nondestructive testing and photoacoustic based high resolution microscopic macro-vascular imaging under various disease models.