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Multidimensional synergy-induced high piezoelectricity and reliability KNN piezoceramics for high-frequency ultrasonic transducers

多维协同效应诱导的高压电性及可靠性的KNN压电陶瓷应用于高频超声换能器

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Abstract

High-frequency ultrasonic transducers have been implemented as a powerful tool for modern medical diagnosis and therapy. Most current transducers use piezoelectric ceramics for electromechanical couplings, which will undergo periodic electro-acoustic transitions at high frequencies (≥20 MHz), thereby requiring high reliability. This work presents a structural engineering strategy to improve the piezoelectricity and reliability of potassium sodium niobate (KNN)-based ceramics with potential high-frequency ultrasonic imaging transducers. The KNN-based ceramics exhibit fatigue-free behavior with enhanced piezoelectricity (d33 ∼550 ± 20 pC N−1), and the mechanisms are discussed in view of multi-dimensions from macroscopy to microscopy. Considering the synergistic effect of multi-phase coexistence, well-kept microstructure, and flexible domain rotation, property-worsening cracks during fatigue are restrained; furthermore, the aggregation of space charges is hindered, thereby reducing the pinned domain and improving the fatigue resistance. Based on the high-performance piezoceramics, the fabricated ultrasonic transducer has high reliability with a steady sensitivity and an unchanged broad bandwidth (∼76%) from room temperature to 80°C. In addition, images of a tilapia eyeball are scanned to confirm the imaging capability of transducers. We expect that the novel approach to achieving high performance through the structural strategy promotes KNN-based ultrasonic devices for biomedical imaging.

摘要

高频超声换能器已成为现代医学诊断和治疗的有力工具. 目前,大多数超声换能器使用压电陶瓷进行机电耦合, 在高频(>20 MHz)下会发生周期性的电声转换, 因此对材料可靠性要求较高. 本文提出了一种结构调控策略, 以提高铌酸钾钠(KNN)基无铅陶瓷的压电性与可靠性,并用于高频超声成像. 该KNN基陶瓷具有增**的压电性(d33 ~550 ±20 pC N−1)及抗疲劳特性, 同时针对其良好性能, 我们从涉及宏观到微观的多项共存、完好微观结构与灵活畴翻转的多维度协同效应阐述其机理. 该多维度协同效应抑制了疲劳过程中性能恶化裂纹的出现及空间电荷的聚集, 从而减少了畴壁的钉扎, 增**了抗疲劳性. 此外, 基于该高性能压电陶瓷制备的超声换能器具有高可靠性及温度稳定性(从室温到80°C, 频带宽度几乎不变). 我们利用该超声换能器扫描罗非鱼眼球结构测试了器件成像效果. 相信通过结构策略实现性能提升的新方法可以促进KNN基超声器件在生物医学方面的应用.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 52202144, 52061130216 and 52032007), the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (2020B0109380001), the Central Funds Guiding the Local Science and Technology Development of Sichuan Province (2021ZYD0022), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Sichuan University (YJ2021153). Wu J thanks the Newton Advanced Fellowship award (NAFR1201126) from the Royal Society. The authors thank Mrs. Hui Wang (Analytical & Testing Center of Sichuan University) for collecting the FE-SEM images.

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    Ruichen Li  (**睿琛), **-xi Sun  (孙茜茜), Chongyang Li  (**崇阳), Ting Zheng  (郑婷), Laiming Jiang  (蒋来明) & Jiagang Wu  (吴家刚)

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    Yushun Zeng  (曾禹舜) & Runze Li  (**润泽)

Authors
  1. Ruichen Li  (**睿琛)
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  8. Jiagang Wu  (吴家刚)
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Contributions

Jiang L and Wu J conceived the idea of this work. Li R and Sun XX conceived and designed the experiments. Sun XX and Li C helped construct the framework of the manuscript. Jiang L and Zeng Y prepared the KNN-based transducer. Zeng Y and Li R used the UBM to scan the images of tilapia eyeballs. Jiang L, Zheng T, and Wu J helped modify the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Laiming Jiang  (蒋来明) or Jiagang Wu  (吴家刚).

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supplementary information

Supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Ruichen Li is currently pursuing a PhD degree in the College of Materials Science and Engineering at Sichuan University. He received his bachelor’s degree in materials physics and chemistry from Sichuan University in 2018. His research interests mainly focus on KNN-based piezoceramics, ferroelectric materials, and high-frequency ultrasound transducers.

Yushun Zeng (graduate student member, IEEE) received the BS degree in bioengineering from Nan**g Tech University, Nan**g, China, in 2019, and MS degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA, in 2021. He is currently pursuing a PhD degree from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. His research interests mainly focus on the high-frequency ultrasound transducer/array, 3D-printed ultrasonic device, and acoustic tweezer.

Laiming Jiang is an assistant professor in the College of Materials Science and Engineering at Sichuan University. He received his PhD degree in materials physics and chemistry from Sichuan University in 2019. He worked as a postdoctoral scholar-research associate at the Keck School of Medicine, the University of Southern California in 2020–2021. His research work focuses on the development of high-performance piezoelectric materials, piezoelectric ultrasound transducers, ultrasound-induced energy harvesting, multiscale and multi-materials 3D printing, and bio-implantable devices.

Jiagang Wu has been a fulltime professor at Sichuan University since 2015. He received his BS and PhD degrees in materials physics and chemistry from Sichuan University in 2003 and 2008, respectively. Then, he worked in Prof. John Wang’s group (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National University of Singapore) as a Singapore Millennium Postdoctoral Fellow (SMF-PDF) from 2008 to 2010. His research interest mainly concentrates on the relationship of “structure-composition design-property modification” in ferro/piezoelectric/multiferroic materials, especially in lead-free piezoceramics.

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40843_2022_2184_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Multidimensional synergy-induced high piezoelectricity and reliability KNN piezoceramics for high-frequency ultrasonic transducers

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Li, R., Zeng, Y., Sun, Xx. et al. Multidimensional synergy-induced high piezoelectricity and reliability KNN piezoceramics for high-frequency ultrasonic transducers. Sci. China Mater. 66, 686–695 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-022-2184-7

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