Use of sputtered zinc oxide film on aluminium foil substrate to produce a flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer

Hou, Ruozhou, Fu, Yong Qing, Hutson, David, Zhao, Chao, Gimenez, Esteban H. and Kirk, Katherine (2016) Use of sputtered zinc oxide film on aluminium foil substrate to produce a flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer. Ultrasonics, 68. pp. 54-60. ISSN 0041-624X

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Abstract

A flexible and low profile ultrasonic transducer was fabricated for non-destructive testing (NDT) applications by DC sputtering of 3 μm thick, c-axis oriented, ZnO film on 50 μm aluminium foil. Due to the thin foil-based construction, the transducer can be applied to curved objects and used in sites of restricted accessibility. The device has been used to demonstrate detection of simulated defects in a 45 mm diameter steel pipe, and for thickness measurement on a 3.1 mm thick flat carbon steel plate. Centre frequency measured on the flat plate was 24 29 MHz, with - 6dB bandwidth 4-7 MHz. The pulse duration depended on the couplant, at best 3 cycles or 0.12 μs using SONO Ultragel or epoxy couplant. Transducer performance was found to be comparable to a commercial 10 MHz piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer.

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