Magnesium Alloy Matching Layer for PMN-PT Single Crystal Transducer Applications

In this paper, we propose using magnesium alloy as the matching layer for the ultrasonic transducer made of 0.68 Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O-3-0.32PbTiO(3) (PMN-0.32PT) single crystal. The complete sets of elastic constants of AZ31B, GW83, and ZK60 magnesium alloys have been measured, which is practically a homogeneous material. The AZ31B magnesium alloy has an acoustic impedance of 10.36 MRayl, which is suitable for the development of high-performance ultrasonic transducers. A 3.5-MHz PMN-PT single crystal transducer has been designed and fabricated successfully using AZ31B magnesium alloy as the first quarter-wavelength matching layer. The -6-dB bandwidth and two-way insertion loss at the center frequency of the transducer are about 67% and 11.4 dB, respectively, much superior to the transducer fabricated using 0-3 composite matching layer. The high performance of this transducer indicates that the magnesium alloy is indeed an excellent matching layer material for ultrasonic transducer applications.