SUBMITTED TO: - SUBMITTED BY:-

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
There is always a sense of gratitude which one expresses to others for their helpful and needy services they
render during all phases of life. I would like to do it as I really wish to express my gratitude towards all those
who have been helpful tome in getting this mighty task of Project Report. I would like to thank Dr Vinod sir
and other faculty members of Lovely Professional University for their cooperation to develop this term paper.
Finally, I would like to thanks my dear friends those who had helped me in completing my term paper.

CONTENTS:
1. ACKNOWGEMENT
2. INTRODUCTION TO ULTRASONIC SENSOR
3. FUNDAMENTALS OF ULTRASONIC IMAGING AND FLAW DETECTION

1. OVERVIEW
2. BASICS OF ULTRASONIC TEST
3. ULTRASONIC WAVE MODES
4. SNELL’S LAW
5. ACOUSTIC IMPEDANCE

4. ULTRASONIC SENSOR IN IMAGING

ULTRASONIC SENSOR

Ultrasonic sensors (also known as transceivers when they both send and receive) work on a principle similar to radar or
sonar which evaluate attributes of a target by interpreting the echoes from radio or sound waves respectively. Ultrasonic
sensors generate high frequency sound waves and evaluate the echo which is received back by the sensor. Sensors
calculate the time interval between sending the signal and receiving the echo to determine the distance to an object.

This technology can be used for measuring: wind speed and direction (anemometer), fullness of a tank and speed through
air or water. For measuring speed or direction a device uses multiple detectors and calculates the speed from the relative
distances to particulates in the air or water. To measure the amount of liquid in a tank, the sensor measures the distance to
the surface of the fluid. Further applications include: humidifiers, sonar, medical ultrasonography, burglar alarms and non-
destructive testing.

ULTRASONIC SENSOR USE IN IMAGING:

Ultrasonic sensors make use of the principles of medical ultrasonography in order to create visual images of the
fingerprint. Unlike optical imaging, ultrasonic sensors use very high frequency sound waves to penetrate the epidermal
layer of skin. The sound waves are generated using piezoelectric transducers and reflected energy is also measured using
piezoelectric materials. Since the dermal skin layer exhibits the same characteristic pattern of the fingerprint, the reflected
wave measurements can be used to form an image of the fingerprint. This eliminates the need for clean, undamaged
epidermal skin and a clean sensing surface. [5]

APPLICATIONS
An ultrasonic imaging sensor with greatly enhanced image clarity and reduced cost that can be used in a variety of fields,
such as medical or military applications
ADVANTAGES
1. Design utilizes inexpensive thin film transistors, significantly reducing production costs
TArray format replaces acoustic waves, which are used in existing imaging technology, resulting in visibly higher
resolution imaging
2. Design enables device to produce clearer images in less time than conventional methods
3. Eliminates the need for manual scanning, increasing the probability of enhanced images

TECHNOLOGY
Using cost-competitive piezoelectric thin film transistors, this technology is a transducer type structure that uses an array
format to produce high resolution imaging systems. This device provides enhanced imaging technology while simplifying
operation and reducing production cost, making it an improved alternative to existing models and expensive transducer
sensor arrays that use silicon wafers. Structured much like a conventional MOS transistor used in integrated circuits today,
any piezoelectric thin films can be used in the gate dielectric layer.

ULTRASONIC IMAGE SENSING ARRAY AND METHOD

An ultrasonic sensing array having ultrasonic transducer elements formed on a micromachined single-crystal
semiconductor wafer provided with a deep recess under each transducer. Etch-altering dopants are diffused into the water
to form rimmed support structures for dielectric stress-balanced elements. Composite dielectric layers are grown on both
surfaces of the wafer. One composite layer serves as a diaphragm underlying the transducer elements. The other
composite layer serves as a mask for etching away the substrate under each transducer element to form the deep recess
while leaving the support structures and diaphragm layer. The resulting hollow or recess under each transducer element
reduces the parasitic capacitance between the transducer and support substrate. The transducer elements are made by
forming conductive bottom plates on the dielectric diaphragm layer, adding a piezoelectric polymer layer and thereafter
forming the conductive top plates. The resulting ultrasonic sensors are capable of operation over a wide variety of
frequencies with improved sensitivity and decreased acoustic crosstalk between sensor elements. Switching transistors
may also be fabricated as part of the patterned semiconductor substrate.

FUNDAMENTALS OF ULTRASONIC IMAGING AND FLAW DETECTION

OVERVIEW
Ultrasonics refers to any study or application of sound waves higher in frequency than the human audible range. Music
and common sounds that are considered pleasant are typically 12 kHz or less, while some humans can hear frequencies up
to 20 kHz. Ultrasonic waves consist of frequencies greater than 20 kHz and exist in excess of 25 MHz. They are used in
many applications including plastic welding, medicine, jewelry cleaning, and nondestructive test. Within nondestructive
test, ultrasonic waves give you the ability to"see through" solid/opaque material and detect surface or internal flaws
without affecting the material adversely.

1. Basics of Ultrasonic Test

BASICS OF ULTRASONIC TEST

Ultrasonic wavelengths are on the same order of magnitude as visible light, giving them many of the same
properties of light. For example, ultrasonic wavelengths can be focused, reflected, and refracted. Ultrasonic
waves are transmitted through air, water, and solids such as steel by high-frequency particle vibrations. These
waves are transmitted in homogenous solid objects much like pointing a flashlight around a room with various
objects that reflect light. The directed energy in an ultrasonic wave is reflected by boundaries between materials
regardless of whether the material is gas, liquid, or solid. Ultrasonic waves are also reflected by any cracks or
voids in solid materials. These reflected waves, which are caused by internal defects, can be compared to the
reflected waves from the external surfaces, enabling the size and severity of internal defects to be identified.

Generating and detecting ultrasonic waves requires an ultrasonic transducer. Piezoelectric ceramics within
ultrasonic transducers are "struck" – similar to the way tuning forks are struck to generate an audible note – with
electricity, typically between 50 and 1000 V – to produce the ultrasonic wave. The ultrasonic wave is carried
from the transducer to the unit under test (UUT) by a couplant – typically water, oil, or gel – and is reflected
back to the transducer by both external surfaces and internal defects.

When operating in pulse-echo mode, ultrasonic transducers act as both emitters and receivers. The reflected
ultrasonic waves vibrate the piezoelectric crystal within the ultrasonic transducer and generate voltages that are
measurable by data acquisition hardware. When operating in through-transmission mode, two ultrasonic
transducers are used; one transducer generates the wave and the other receives the wave.
In a typical application, the ultrasonic transducer is struck with a high-voltage pulse, which lasts on the order of
5 µs, and then the system listens for the echoes. The system listens on the order of 10 to 15 µs. Even in the most
advanced systems, the transducers are pulsed every 500 µs.

The most primitive method to analyze the reflected ultrasonic signals is time-of-flight (TOF) display, or A-scan.
Discontinuities that are closer to the ultrasonic transducer are received sooner than those further away from the
transducer. The figure below depicts the TOF display from the previous example.

The x-axis on the A-scan is not typically units of time but is converted to distance. This conversion is
accomplished by measuring, or looking up, the speed of sound through the material that the ultrasonic wave is
traveling through and performing the conversion. Although there are a few exceptions, the speed of sound
through a material is governed largely by the density and elasticity of the material. For most materials, the speed
of sound within homogenous material is easy to research and find.

Most ultrasonic nondestructive test applications range from 400 kHz to 25 MHz’s The frequency of the
ultrasonic sensor is chosen based on several factors including detectable flaw size, depth of penetration, and
grain size of the material. Materials made of fine-grained material, such as metals, permit deep penetration by
ultrasonic waves of all frequencies. However, coarse-grained material, including many plastics, scatter high-
frequency ultrasonic waves. The higher the frequency, the smaller the flaws the system detects, but the depth of
penetration decreases material, including many plastics, scatter high-frequency ultrasonic waves. The higher the
frequency, the smaller the flaws the system detects, but the depth of penetration decreases.

ULTRASONIC WAVE MODES

Two predominant types of waves, or wave modes, are generated within a material with ultrasonic waves:
longitudinal and shear. Longitudinal waves (L-waves) compress and decompress the material in the direction of
motion, much like sound waves in air. Shear waves (S-waves) vibrate particles at right angles compared to the
motion of the ultrasonic wave. The velocity of shear waves through a material is approximately half that of the
longitudinal waves. The angle in which the ultrasonic wave enters the material determines whether longitudinal,
shear, or both waves are produced.
Ultrasonic beam refraction and mode conversion are comparable to light as it passes from one medium to
another. Remember how the straw in the glass of water looks broken if observed from the side? The same
phenomenon occurs with ultrasonic waves as they are passed into a UUT. The figure below depicts an
ultrasonic transducer that transmits an ultrasonic wave through water into a block of steel. Because the direction
of the ultrasonic wave is at a 90-degree angle with the surface of the steel block, no refraction occurs and the L-
wave is preserved.

As the angle of the ultrasonic transducer is altered, refraction and mode conversion occur. In the figure below, the
ultrasonic transducer has been rotated 5 degrees. The longitudinal wave from the transducer is converted into two modes,
longitudinal and shear, and both wave modes are refracted. Notice that the waves are refracted at different angles. In this
example, the L-wave is approximately four times the transducer angle and the S-wave is just over two times the
transducer angle. Angles that create two wave modes are not appropriate because they cause the ultrasonic transducer to
receive multiple echoes, making it difficult to analyze the data.
Refraction and mode conversion occur because of the change in L-wave velocity as it passes the boundary from one
medium to another. The higher the difference in the velocity of sound between two materials, the larger the resulting angle
of refraction. L-waves and S-waves have different angles of refraction because they have dissimilar velocities within the
same material.

As the angle of the ultrasonic transducer continues to increase, L-waves move closer to the surface of the UUT. The angle
at which the L-wave is parallel with the surface of the UUT is referred to as the first critical angle. This angle is useful for
two reasons. Only one wave mode is echoed back to the transducer, making it easy to interpret the data. Also, this angle
gives the test system the ability to look at surfaces that are not parallel to the front surface, such as welds.

SNELL’S LAW

L-wave and S-wave refraction angles are calculated using Snell’s law. You also can use this law to determine
the first critical angle for any combination of materials.

Where:
θR = angle of the refracted beam in the UUT
θI = incident angle from normal of beam in the wedge or liquid
VI = velocity of incident beam in the liquid or wedge
VR = velocity of refracted beam in the UUT

For example, calculate the first critical angle for a transducer on a plastic wedge that is examining aluminum.

VI = 0.267 cm/µs (for L-waves in plastic)

The plastic wedge must have a minimum angle of 25.29 degrees to transmit only S-waves into the UUT. When
the S-wave angle of refraction is greater than 90 degrees, all ultrasonic energy is reflected by the UUT.

ACOUSTIC IMPEDANCE

When performing ultrasonic testing, it is important to understand how effectively ultrasonic waves pass from
one medium to another. Generally, when an ultrasonic wave is passed from one medium to another, some
energy is reflected and the remaining energy is transmitted. The factor that describes this relationship is referred
to as acoustical impedance and the acoustical impedance ratio.

Z = ρV

where
Z = acoustical impedance
ρ = density
V = velocity of sound through medium

For reference, air has low acoustical impedance, water has higher impedance than air, and steel has higher
impedance than water. The acoustical impedance ratio is the impedance of the second material divided by the
first. The higher the ratio, the more energy is reflected. For example, when ultrasonic waves are passed from
water to steel, the acoustical impedance is approximately 20 to 1; whereas, when ultrasonic waves are passed
from air to steel, the acoustical impedance is approximately 100,000 to 1. Almost 100 percent of the ultrasonic
energy is reflected when passing ultrasonic waves from air to a solid such as steel, making air a very poor
ultrasonic couplant.

ULTRASOUND IMAGING

In certain ultrasound imaging applications, such as inside magnetic resonance scanners 1 or in Hall effect imaging devices,2
nonmetallic ultrasound sensors are preferred because of their immunity to electromagnetic interference. This paper
describes the development of high-sensitivity fiber-optic ultrasound sensors suitable for such applications. These sensors
are not affected by external electromagnetic fields. They are relatively simple to fabricate and have lower material cost
than piezoelectric sensors.

In the past, fiber-optic ultrasound sensors have operated either by sensing pressure-induced refractive index changes in the
fiber or surrounding medium,3,4 or by monitoring pressure-induced displacements of a membrane structure on the tip of
the fiber with high precision interferometers. 5,6 Due to the small diameter of optical fibers, these sensors are miniaturized
to suit a wide range of applications. The displacement-based sensors have higher sensitivity and can detect pressure pulses
of kPascal amplitudes in the MHz frequency range. The detection threshold is ultimately determined by the amplitude of
displacement in the liquid surrounding the fiber tip relative to the laser wavelength.

For imaging applications, a higher sensitivity is desired. This can be achieved if the size of the sensor is not limited to the
diameter of the fiber. The basic idea is derived from high sensitivity fiber-optic hydrophones in the audio frequency range
(for a comprehensive introduction to optical fiber based acoustic sensors, see reference 7). A typical hydrophone consists
of a thin optical fiber wound on a substrate. When immersed in water, acoustic pressure waves cause strains in the
substrate and changes in the length of the optical fiber. The length change is measured at high precision by incorporating
the fiber into the light path of one arm of a laser interferometer. High sensitivity is achieved from the short wavelength of
the laser and the high gain produced by many windings of fiber in the hydrophone.

In extending this idea to ultrasound sensors, one must consider the much shorter acoustic wavelength. In optical fiber
hydrophones, the entire sensor contracts or expands in response to the pressure changes in the surrounding medium. In
ultrasound imaging, the acoustic wavelength in water is on the order of 1 mm or less, much lower than the minimum
bending radius of the most flexible optical fibers. Thus, the size of the sensor is on the order of multiple wavelengths. The
description of quasistatic strain is not valid, and wave propagation inside the sensor needs to be considered.

Besides sufficient sensitivity, medical imaging applications also require the sensor to be compact, rugged and able to
focus to a specific depth. Based on these considerations, the following sensor designs were constructed and tested.

SENSOR DESIGNS AND THEORY OF SENSOR OPERATION

As stated above, the detection mechanism is that ultrasonic pressure waves cause strains in the optical fiber, thus
modulating the phase of the light passing through the fiber. The fiber-based Michelson and Mach-Zehnder interferometers
used to measure the strains are shown in figure 1. The sensing arm contains the segment wound around the sensor, while
the reference arm contains a segment wound on a piezoceramic cylinder. Low-frequency thermal fluctuations and external
perturbations cause phase drift between the two arms, leading to light intensity fluctuations at the output. These are
compensated with a negative feedback circuit, providing voltage to the piezoceramic cylinder in the reference arm. The
feedback circuit responds to audio and lower frequency fluctuations, so there is no signal loss in the ultrasound range. The
gain and dc offset of the feedback voltage are adjusted to maintain a phase difference of 90° between the two arms. If the
light intensity in each arm is I0, any small strain ΔL induced by the ultrasonic waves results in a phase change Δ in the
sensing arm and a change in the light output of the interferometer ΔI:

(1)

Where λ is the laser wavelength within the optical fiber, and ΔL is much smaller than λ.
FIG. 1

Fiberized laser interferometers used to measure the ultrasound-induced strain in the fiber-optic sensors. (A) Mach-
Zehnder interferometer. The high coherence light from the laser is split into the reference arm and the sensor arm, and
then recombined.
Two different sensor designs are tested. In the first design, 8 a single-mode optical fiber is wound in a helix and glued to a
thin flexible backing disk. The design is shown in figure 2. For testing, the sensor is immersed in a water tank. Ultrasonic
waves produced in the tank may cause volumetric expansion and compression of the backing disk (the breathing mode),
or they may cause it to wobble. Both forms of deformation change the strain in the fiber disk, which is detected by the
interferometer.

FIG. 2
Design of first sensor.The optical fiber is wound into a planar disk and glued to a backing disk of polyethylene.
A limitation of the planar disk geometry is that glass-core optical fibers have minimum bending diameters of 5 mm or
larger. In order to keep the thickness of the fiber disk small compared to the acoustic wavelength, only one or two layers
of fiber can be used. To wind a sufficient length of fiber to improve sensitivity, the diameter of the disk needs to be 25
mm or larger. This is larger than most single element probes used in medical ultrasound. The thin flexible backing disk
may also change shape when pressed against the sample, thus changing the acoustic profile of the sensor.
The second design overcomes these limitations by manipulating the ultrasound wave-front. In this design, the optical fiber
is wound into a cylinder. Placed inside the cylinder is a coaxial conical reflector, with the tip of the cone facing the
incoming ultrasonic wave (Fig. 3). When immersed in the test tank, incoming waves propagating parallel to the axis of the
cylinder are reflected radially outward toward the cylindrical surface of the fiber spool. If the angle of the cone is 45°, an
incoming planar wavefront is reflected into a cylindrically-outgoing wavefront, and impacts the fiber cylinder
simultaneously. The overall length change in the fiber is the sum of the changes in all the turns of the cylinder, which
magnifies the signal many fold. This geometry also allows the sensor diameter to be as small as 5 mm, the minimum
bending diameter of the fiber.

FIG. 3
Design of the second sensor.The optical fiber is wound on a thin polyethylene cylinder. A coaxial aluminum cone
ultrasound reflector is inserted into the cylinder to direct the ultrasonic wave front toward the fiber cylinder.
n a more robust construction, the fiber is wound around a solid cylindrical form with a cone-shaped hollowing at one end
(Fig. 4). The form is made of a plastic material with acoustic impedance similar to water. The plastic-air interface of the
cone serves as the reflector. The reflection is nearly complete since the acoustic impedance of air is orders of magnitude
lower than that of solid material. To receive an ultrasound signal from an object such as tissue all that is necessary is to
make a good acoustic contact between the object and the flat end of the form. Compared to the immersion design in figure
3, there is some sensitivity loss from the acoustic impedance mismatch between the plastic material and water. This loss
can be recovered with impedance matching layer(s).

The sensitivity of the cylindrical sensors can be estimated from the relationship between the ultrasound pressure and
changes in the radius of the fiber cylinder. Consider a plane wave of pressure P incident on the sensor. Denote the
acoustic impedance of the cylinder as Z, the number of turns of the fiber as N, the linear Young’s modulus of the fiber as
Y (force-strain ratio along the fiber), the laser wavelength in the fiber as λ, the radius of the cylinder as R, the pressure-
induced radius change as ΔR, and the stretch in the fiber length as ΔL. The incident plane wave is reflected by the cone
and propagates radially to the fiber cylinder (Fig. 3). Because of this process, the pressure on the cylinder decreases from
P at the base level of the cone to near zero at the tip level of the cone. For approximate estimates, the average pressure on
the cylinder is taken as P/2. To obtain the change of radius ΔR under this pressure, one needs to include the constrictive
pressure on the cylinder by the expansion of the fiber spool. This pressure is

(2)

The incident pressure on the cylinder wall will approximately balance the sum of this and the internal stress associated
with the radial strain in the cylinder:

(3)

Substituting Eq. (2) into Eq. (3), ΔR can be expressed as

(4)

The laser phase change can be expressed as

(5)

It should be noted that all the fiber-optic sensors described here are displacement based—displacements in the medium
directly translate into fiber length changes. As expressed in Eq. (1), this results in a proportional change in the light output
of the laser interferometer because displacements are proportional to pressure divided by frequency. The sensitivity of the
sensors in radians per unit pressure decreases with frequency. This is seen in the measurements described below. Other
mechanical and optical factors that may affect the performance of the sensors at higher frequencies will be described later
in the Discussion section.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Sensors were made from Corning single-mode 80 μm diameter fiber. In the first design, the fiber is wound into a disk of
10 mm inner diameter and 25 mm outer diameter, and the fiber disk is glued to a 1 mm thick polyethylene disk of 26 mm
diameter (Fig. 2). This sensor is incorporated into one arm of a Michelson interferometer (Fig. 1). Thermal fluctuations
and external vibrations are compensated by winding the other arm of the interferometer onto a piezoceramic cylinder, and
applying on the piezoceramic cylinder a feedback voltage from the output light intensity. The feedback voltage is low-
pass filtered and only compensates for fluctuations in the audio range and below, where most of the thermal drifts and
environmental noise occur. The light source of the interferometer is a 1.3 μm wavelength high-coherence solid-state laser
(Lightwave Electronics). This sensor was tested in a water tank where ultrasonic pulses were generated with broadband
piezoelectric transmitters (Krautkramer-Branson Alpha immersion transducers), shown in figure 5. In order to quantify
the sensitivity, the acoustic pressure at the location of the fiber sensor needs to be measured. This was done by repeating
the measurements with piezoelectric transducers of known sensitivities. The sensors and transmitters are directional and
nonfocused, and it was found that direction alignment between the transmitter and the receiving sensor was crucial for
reliable measurements, especially at higher frequencies.
FIG. 5
The Arrangement for measuring sensitivity of fiber-optic sensors. Ultrasonic pulses are emitted from the transmitter,
reflected by an aluminum target block and received by the sensors.

Four sets of measurements were performed with broadband transmitters of center frequencies 1 MHz,
2.25 MHz, 3.5 MHz and 5 MHz, respectively. These measurements overlapped in the frequency range of 1 to 4 MHz;
thus, each frequency is covered by two to four measurements. Figure 6 shows the average sensitivity and standard
deviation of the measurements over the entire frequency range. The lowest two frequencies were measured only with the 1
MHz transmitter. Since the fiber sensor directly measures displacements rather than pressure, its sensitivity with respect to
acoustic pressure decreases with frequency. The noise of the entire detection system was dominated by the intensity
fluctuations of the laser source and was on the order of 0.05 radian /√MHz in the 1 MHz to 4 MHz range.

FIG. 6
Sensitivity of the fiber-optic sensors from 500 kHz to 4 MHz, measured in milliradians per pascal. The first sensor was
tested with a Michelson interferometer, which doubles its sensitivity when compared to a Mach-Zehnder interferometer

The second design was realized in two sensors of different constructions. In the first construction, the optical fiber is
wound around a thin polyethylene cylinder, centered around a conical aluminum reflector ( Fig. 3). The fiber cylinder
consisted of 30 turns in one layer. The overall diameter of this sensor is 13 mm, and strain in the fiber is measured with a
Mach-Zehnder interferometer (Fig. 1). The sensitivity was measured as described for the first design. The result is shown
in figure 6. The detection threshold of the overall system is about 3 Pascal/√MHz at 1 MHz and 15 Pascal/√MHz at 4
MHz. Compared to the fiber disk design, there is no loss of sensitivity.

The sensitivity of this sensor can also be estimated with Eq. (5). The nominal acoustic impedance of the cylinder is 2.0
Mrayl, and the tensile Young’s modulus of the fiber is estimated from the bulk Young’s modulus of glass to be 300 N.
With these parameters the calculated sensitivity at 1 MHz is 45 μRadian/Pascal, and at 4 MHz is 11 μRadian/Pascal.
These numbers are about twice the measurements (Fig. 6), possibly due to acoustic reflections at the water-polyethylene
interface and the polyethylene-fiber interface.

In the second construction, optical fiber was wound on a solid cylindrical form with a cone shaped hollowing at one end
and a flat surface at the other (Fig. 4). The form was made of plexiglass and had a 13 mm diameter (Fig. 7). Figure 6
shows the sensitivity-frequency relation. The sensitivity is reduced by about 50% from the water-filled version, likely due
to acoustic mismatch between plexiglass and water.

FIG. 7
Photograph of the fiber-optic ultrasound sensor with the plexiglass form and hollow cone reflector. The ruler below is
graduated in 1/16′ (1.5 mm).
The dynamic range of these sensors can be determined from figure 6 and Eq. (1). For the Michelson and Mach-Zehnder
interferometers, the output intensity is approximately linear to the laser phase shift up to 1 radian from the quadrature
point. This corresponds to an acoustic pressure of up to 40 kPa at 1 MHz, and 200 kPa at 4 MHz.
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

We have described several fiber-optic ultrasound sensors based on measuring pressure-induced strains in fiber spools.
According to Eq. (5), the sensitivity of these sensors scales with the number of turns in the fiber spool, but only up to
certain limiting points. One limiting factor is the longitudinal tension within the fiber. As shown in Eq. (5), when this
tension becomes the main resistance toward changes in the radius of the sensor, the sensitivity does not increase further
with more turns of winding. Another limiting point occurs when the total thickness of the fiber layers approaches half the
acoustic wavelength. Beyond this thickness strains in successive fiber windings reverse sign. The third limiting point
occurs when the time for light to traverse the entire length of the fiber approaches the period of the ultrasound signal.
Beyond this point, the pressure-induced phase shift in the light will not constructively sum. For a sensor of 15 mm
diameter and operating at 4 MHz, the first limiting point is reached at approximately 100 turns, the second at 60 turns (2
layers of 30 turns each), the third at approximately 1,000 turns. The tension and thickness constraints are therefore most
relevant. The latter is dependent on the acoustic wavelength in the fiber layers. At ultrasound frequencies exceeding 10
MHz, the acoustic wavelength approaches the diameter of the optical fiber, and the basic premise of this type of sensor
design is not valid. The sensitivity above 10 MHz is expected to fall off quickly. These two limiting points increase with
the radius. Correspondingly the achievable sensitivity will be higher for larger diameter sensors.

With the simple Michelson and Mach-Zehnder interferometers described above, the detection thresholds of the fiber-optic
sensors are approximately 5 Pascal at 3 MHz and below. This is about 50 times the detection threshold of piezoelectric
(PZT5H or pvdf based) sensors of similar sizes. This threshold is determined by the intensity-noise of the laser source.
Therefore with differential light detection techniques the sensitivity of these fiber-optic sensors may be increased tenfold
or more. Other interferometers with higher finesse values should also improve the sensitivity.

The measurements above showed that the immersion sensor of the second design had the highest sensitivity, while the
planar disk design had the broadest bandwidth. However, neither design is as practical as the hollow-cone sensor for
imaging applications. The planar disk sensor is large and lacks rigidity, while the immersion sensor needs to be filled with
water and sealed with a thin membrane. The hollow cone sensor is of rigid construction and only the flat end of the sensor
needs to be in contact with the subject. It can be used in much the same way as conventional piezoceramic transducers.
Although the acoustic impedance mismatch between plexiglass and water decreases its sensitivity, this can be recovered
with matching layers. For these reasons, the hollow cone design is the most promising one for practical applications.

Imaging sensors are often focused to improve resolution. Acoustic focusing can be realized in many ways in the fiber-
optic sensors. In the second design involving the reflector cone, the shape and angle of the cone relative to the cylindrical
axis determine the location of the focal point. Alternatively, a curved front surface can be used. Another option is to use a
cylinder that expands slightly toward the front. Which is the optimal scheme will be decided by further experiments.
REFERENCES

1. Udd Eric., editor. Fiber Optic Sensors: An Introduction for Engineers and Scientists. John Wiley & Sons Inc; New
York: 1991.
2. www.wikipedia.com
3. Sensor technology book by Jon Wilson
4. www.plextek.com/brochure/ultrason.pdf
5. www.csio.res.in/Ultrasonic_Imaging_Sensor.html
6. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892210/
7. www.sensorsmag.com/sensors/...ultrasound/mems-reshapes-ultrasonic-sensing-1066
8. www.freepatentsonline.com/5060653.html
9. www.ndt.net/article/ultragarsas/62-2007-no.3_01-kazys.pdf
10. www.piezotechnologies.com/