A line-focus ultrasonic SH-wave probe is developed for possible application to TOFD method. The probe is composed of a quarteror half-cylindrical wedge and a piezoelectric transducer adhered to the cylindrical surface of the wedge. An SH-wave pulse with cylindrical wave front is generated by the transducer, transmitted to the wedge, and focused on a line at the bottom surface of the wedge. Henc...

This paper presents a self-powered piezoelectric energy harvesting circuit using frequency conversion. A vibration energy harvesting principle is introduced. Due to a capacitive characteristic of the piezoelectric vibration transducer, an energy harvesting circuit is proposed for matching the capacitive impedance. The energy harvesting circuit consists of a matching circuit with up-conversion, ...

The ability to generate acoustic longitudinal and shear bulk waves in solid materials using a single transducer is a suitable feature required in several devices and systems involving ultrasonic waves. The problem addressed here is that of the, possibly wideband, multimode buffer delay line, usable, for example, in non-destructive evaluation applications. The solution considered for this purpos...

Microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography was explored to image biological tissues. Short microwave pulses irradiated tissues to generate acoustic waves by thermoelastic expansion. The microwave-induced thermoacoustic waves were detected with a focused ultrasonic transducer to obtain two-dimensional tomographic images of biological tissues. The dependence of the axial and the lateral resoluti...

In this paper, we present a technique for the deposition of inks, toners, organic polymers, fuels, small solid particles, biological and chemical fluids, using a fluid ejector. The ejector design is based on a flextensional transducer that excites the axisymmetric resonant modes of a clamped circular plate. It is constructed by depositing a thin piezoelectric annular plate onto a thin, edge cla...

Bubbles induced by blast waves or shocks are speculated to be the major cause of damages in biological cells in mild traumatic brain injuries. Microbubble collapse was found to induce noticeable cell detachment from the cell substrate, changes in focal adhesion and biomechanics. To better understand the bubble mechanism, we would like to construct a system, which allows us to clearly differenti...

Piezoelectric vibration based energy harvesting systems have been widely utilized and researched as powering modules for various types of sensor systems due to their ease of integration and relatively high energy density compared to RF, thermal, and electrostatic based energy harvesting systems. In this paper, a low-power CMOS full-bridge rectifier is presented as a potential solution for an ef...

We describe a pocket-sized ultrasound driver with an ultralow-output impedance amplifier circuit (less than 0.05 ohms) that can transfer more than 99% of the voltage from a power supply to the ultrasound transducer with minimal reflections. The device produces high-power acoustical energy waves while operating at lower voltages than conventional ultrasound driving systems because energy losses ...

Clear needle visualisation is recognised as an unmet need for ultrasound guided percutaneous needle procedures including regional anaesthesia and tissue biopsy. With inadequate needle visibility, these procedures may result in serious complications or a failed operation. This paper reports analysis of the modal behaviour of a previously proposed ultrasound-actuated needle configuration, which m...

The affinity of the D-galactose-binding lectin from Artocarpus heterophyllus lectin, known as jacalin, with immonuglobulins (Igs) was determined by biofunctionalization of a piezoelectric transducer. This piezoelectric biofunctionalized transducer was used as a mass-sensitive analytical tool, allowing the real-time binding analysis of jacalin-human immunoglobulin A1 (IgA(1)) and jacalin-bovine ...