• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.134-140
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• 2015

Traditional moxibustion therapy can cause severe pain and leave scarring burns at the moxibustion site as it relies on the practitioner's subjective and qualitative treatment. Recently, ultrasound therapy has received attention as an alternative to moxibustion therapy owing to its objectiveness and quantitative nature. However, in order to convert ultrasound energy into heat energy, there is a need to precisely understand the ultrasound-focusing characteristics of the acoustic lens. Therefore, in this study, an FEM simulation was performed for acoustic lenses with different geometries a concave lens and zone lens as the geometry critically influences ultrasound focusing. The acoustic pressure field, amplitude, and focal point were also calculated. Furthermore, the performance of the fabricated acoustic lens was verified by a sound pressure measurement experiment.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.15-23
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• 1994

We developed an electronic lens for acoustic imaging systems, which is linear array with 31 microphones equally spaced with distance 34mm. Resonant frequency fo receiver circuit coupled to microphone is 20 kHz. We arranged 16 microphones horizontally and 15 microphones vertically, so that the array allows us to obtain a 2 dimensional angle of source, and to track the motion of source in real time. Due to the problem of aliasing in discrete Fourier Transfrom, the maximum observable angle of the lens is limited to 15${\circ}$. We also employed quadrature phase detection scheme to adjust the focus. We have tested the acoustic lens with a personal computer in an anechoic room and obtained the results agreed with the acoustic imaging theory.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.39C no.12
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• pp.1318-1322
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• 2014

We develop new sonar system by way of acoustic focusing which is totally different from conventional one in principle. It focuses input wave on the opposite edge of the lens without aberration perfectly. Then, the motion of acoustic source is read by naked eyes. It can be used as an acoustic window deep underwater by converting sound into light. We introduce the sonar in actual size that can be used underwater and report current situation of the development.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.181-190
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• 2014

The underwater acoustic lens system is one of the systems getting high-resolution images on the seafloor by the beam forming method using acoustic lens. The beam forming using acoustic lenses reduces complexity and driving power. When receiving an incoming beam with the acoustic lens array, beam pattern analysis and arrangement problem of the array sensor must be addressed. Introducing SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio), the relationship among sensor interval, beam pattern and image quality would be analyzed. Generally if the sensor interval getting wider, the less effect of the side lobes makes SIR high. If the amplitude of a side lobe is high, SIR is generally getting low. The type of the apodization function changes the width, shape and amplitude of both main lobe and side lobes. Thus an appropriate apodization function can improve SIR. In this paper, SIR is stable at the sensor interval of 13mm with 0-10dB, which is not high relatively. By applying the Chebyshev function, the SIR becomes 80dB over the sensor interval of 37 mm or higher. The Hann and triangular functions demonstrate better SIR when the sensor interval becomes narrower.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.6_spc
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• pp.687-696
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• 2016

A series of process to design an acoustic lens for underwater imaging is reviewed and the method to evaluate characteristics of the lens is investigated. If the target specification of lens is given, the design process consists of the material selection, evaluation of its properties, lens geometry design, prediction of lens characteristics, manufacturing, and evaluation by measurement. In this study, an actual acoustical lens is made by cutting polymethylpentene block. The characteristics of lens are predicted by the hybrid method, combination of ray tracing and Rayleigh integral. For the direct comparison between the prediction and measurement results, a simulation method based on the equivalent source method is suggested to reflect the actual radiation pattern of transducer used for measurements. Finally, the measurement is conducted in a small water tank to observe the actual characteristics of the manufactured lens.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.408-417
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• 2003

In this paper, we have studied the enhancement of the acoustic image by combining bases of support for SFR (Spatial Frequency Response) taken at multi-frequencies. The scanning acoustic microscope system have been constructed using the quadrature detector that is able to measure the amplitude and phase of the reflected signal simultaneously. Both real and quadrature components of reflected signal have been acquired at 4.4 ㎒ to 5.6 ㎒ reliably and accurately. In this experimental result, better depth resolution can be obtained by numerically combining images taken at several different frequencies. Image intensity have been better about 3.4 times at multi-frequency than one at a single frequency.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• spring
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• pp.395-398
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• 1999

본 연구에서는 초음파현미경에서 다중의 동작주파스를 사용하여 얻어진 영상을 합성하여 깊이분해능이 개선된 초음파영상을 복원하는 방법을 연구하였다. 실험을 위하여 중심주파수가 5MHz이고 비대역폭이 $35\%$인 초음파변환기를 사용하여 초음파현미경을 구성하였다. 시편은 알루미늄을 이용하여 표면에 깊이가 $100{\mu}m$이고 지름이 2mm인 원형결함을 제작하였다. 실험결과, 동작주파수가 5MHz인 단일 주파수를 사용하여 얻어진 영상에서 결함이 존재하는 면과 그렇지 않은 면에 대한 콘트라스트가 0.098로 나타났다. 반면에 동작주파수를 $4.4MHz\~5.6MHz$ 범위에서 200kHz씩 변화시키면서 획득한 데이터를 합성하여 얻어진 영상에서 결함이 존재하는 면과 그러하지 않은 면에 대한 영상 콘트라스트가 0.398로 나타났다. 따라서 초음파현미경에서 다중의 동작주파수를 사용한 경우, 피사체의 깊이 변화에 대한 영상의 콘트라스트가 단일주파수를 사용한 경우에 비하여 개선되어 나타났으며 깊이분해능이 향상되었다. 앞으로의 과제는 초음파현미경에서 음향렌즈의 집속도 변화에 대한 적절한 동작주파수의 동작범위와 영상의 분해능과의 관계에 대한 연구가 계속되어져야 한다고 본다.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.5-13
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• 1990

In this paper, 50MHz reflection ultrasonic microscope system with small aperture acoustic lens has been constructed in order to study the defects which lay deep in thick specimens, and acoustic images of multilayered media have been analyzed. Output characteristics of this system for multilayered media have been influenced by acoustic attenuation, aberration in specimen, type of lens and the properties of a defect, and it has been used for image processing of the multilayered I.C. and the bonding layer. In experimental results, it has been shown that small aperture ultrasonic microscope system was powerful tool for inspection of thick specimens such as electronic device, bonding layer, quality of ceramic materials.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.264-273
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• 2015

Improvement of the radiation beam profile of a medical ultrasonic transducer has been researched in this paper. In order to improve the beam profile, a new transducer structure has been devised that includes both a shaded electrode and a multi-focus lens. For a linear sound source, the beam profile was investigated through finite element analysis, and then the optimal design of the devised structure was carried out by considering such performances as sidelobe level, focal range and beamwidth simultaneously. In the process, the optimal dimension of the devised structure was derived by using the ratio of the focal range to the minimum beamwidth as a performance index. As a result, the beam profile has been improved to have a lower sidelobe level at -20.2 dB and a consistent narrow beamwidth from 30 mm to 160 mm depth with the minimum beamwidth at 2.04 mm. Further, a prototype transducer was fabricated to have the devised structure, and its performance was measured and compared with the analysis results to confirm the validity of the devised transducer structure.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.210-218
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• 2015

When the driving voltage of an ultrasound transducer is increased to improve the quality of ultrasound images, heat is generated inside the transducer that can cause patient's skin burn and degradation of transducer performance. Hence, in this paper, a method to disperse the heat of the transducer has been studied. The phased array transducer having 3 MHz center frequency and 32 channels was selected for analyses of the thermal dispersion. First, mechanism of the heat generation was investigated in relation to the transducer operation through theoretical analysis, and material damping and sound pressure amplitude were confirmed to be influential on the heat generation. Further, we investigated the effects of the properties of the materials constituting the transducer on the thermal dispersion through finite element analysis. Based on the analysis results, we determined the thermal properties of the constituent materials that could facilitate the thermal dispersion inside the transducer. The determined thermal properties were applied to the finite element model, and the results showed that the maximum temperature at an acoustic lens contacting with a patient was decreased to 51 % of its initial value.