Characterics of CMUT with MXene (Ti3C2Tx) Diaphragm

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers are more suitable for using in airborne applications than traditional piezoelectric transducers due to their better characteristic of matching impedance. The diaphragm of CMUT, for excellent performance, should have properties which are lower weight, appropriate young’ modulus and higher permittivity. Traditional materials, such as silicon and silicon nitride, is hard to meet the requirements. Monolayer graphene has tiny mass and large young’ modulus, which make it extremely promising in membrane of CMUTs. However, it's greatly limited by the complex process and short lifetime, etc. MXenes, new 2D material, may be an ideal substitute for graphene, which have excellent electronic properties, lower density and higher permittivity. Therefore, a 4×4 ultrasonic array with MXene (Ti
3
C
2
T
x
) diaphragm is proposed, and a multi-physics coupling model based on finite element method is built to simulate the performances of array. The results show that the maximum sound pressure level of the array element at resonance frequency is about 120 dB, and its receiving sensitivity is about -45 dB, which means it has great transmitting and receiving performance.