Fabrication of PZN-PT single crystal based phased array transducers

In recent years, lead zinc niobate-lead titanate (Pb(Zn
1/3
Nb
2/3
)O
3
-PbTiO
3
, also called PZN-PT) single crystals have received extensive attention due to their excellent performance. Compared with lead zirconate titanate (Pb(Zr, Ti)O
3
, also called PZT) ceramics, PZN-PT single crystals have higher electromechanical coupling coefficients, higher piezoelectric constants, and dielectric constants. Consequently, they have a considerable potential to enhance the performance of the transducer, such as bandwidth and sensitivity. We have produced PZN-PT single crystals with higher uniformity by optimizing the single crystal growth procedure. The single crystal allows us to create high performance phased array ultrasonic transducers for cardiac imaging by intercepting piezoelectric wafers of suitable size from the crystals. In this study, a 2.62-MHz phased array ultrasonic transducer has been designed and successfully developed based on PZN-PT single crystals.