• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.622-628
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• 2003

Recently, ultrasound transducers in several tens MHz band, which can give the spatial resolution higher than several tens micrometers, have been intensively studying for applying to medical diagnostic fields of ophthalmology and dermatology. In this paper, the background of the studies, structures and characteristics of the transducers, and images obtained by the transducers are briefly reviewed.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.59-68
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• 2018

Opto-acoustic systems provide structural and functional information regarding biological tissues. Conventional opto-acoustic systems typically employ continuous or pulsed lasers as transmission sources. Compared to lasers, light emitting diodes (LEDs) are cost-effective and relatively portable excitation sources but are non, coherent. Therefore, in this study, a relatively low cost lens - a type of Ramsden eyepiece - was specially designed to theoretically calculate the illumination and achieve a constant brightness across the pupil of an eye. In order to verify the capability of the developed light-emitting diode-acoustic (LEDA) systems, we carried out experiments on bovine and bigeye tuna eyeball samples, which are of similar size to the human eye, using low frequency (10 MHz) and high frequency (25 MHz) ultrasound transducers. High frequency ultrasound transducers are able to provide higher spatial resolution compared to low frequency ultrasound transducers at the expense of penetration depth. Using the 10 MHz and 25 MHz ultrasound transducers, acceptable echo signals (3.82, 3.94, and 5.84 mV at 10 MHz and 282, 1557, 2356 mV at 25 MHz) from depth greater than 3 cm and 6 cm from the anterior surface of the eye were obtained. We thereby confirmed that the LEDA system using a pulsed LED with the designed Ramsden eyepiece lens, used in conjunction with low and high frequency ultrasound transducers, has the potential to be a cost-effective alternative method, while providing adequate acoustic signals from bovine and bigeye tuna ocular areas.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.562-568
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• 2020

This study investigates the relationship between ultrasonic velocity and density in the direct method, the effect of distance between transducers in the indirect method, and the difference between the direct and indirect methods with transducers placed at a distance of 200 mm in nondestructive ultrasonic testing of spruce lumber. The direct method using 54 kHz ultrasonic transducers was applied to two planes, namely, radial section (LR) and tangential section (LT) of samples. The indirect method measurements were taken using the same transducers. Two velocities were measured at the top and bottom of the LT plane and at the two sides of the LR plane; the two values for each plane were averaged. The relationship between density and ultrasound velocity in the direct method demonstrated a positive correlation between the two variables. The difference between the two planes, LT and LR, was not statistically significant. Moreover, the distance between the transducers in the indirect method affected ultrasound velocity, with the ultrasonic velocity increasing as the distance between the transducers became larger. A transducer distance of 200 mm yielded a close approximation of the direct method results with a ratio of 0.87. Finally, no statistical evidence of a difference between the two planes in the indirect method was found. If the direct method, which requires access to two surfaces, is impractical, the indirect method can be applied.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.3E
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• pp.111-118
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• 2010

Three-dimensional ultrasound imaging is a new, exciting technology that allows physicians to use ultrasound to view pathology as a volume, thereby enhancing comprehension of patient anatomy. In this paper, a brief history of the 3-D ultrasound imaging is described in accordance with the development of transducer technology. Then, two representative types of 3-D imaging transducers are reviewed with description of the concept and operation principle of each type: mechanical transducer and matrix array transducer. The mechanical transducer is detailed into free-hand scanning and sequential scanning types. Advantages of each transducer over the other and the technical issues for further performance enhancement are also presented.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.441-451
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• 2023

Ultrasound transducers are an essential component of combined photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging systems and play an important role in image evaluation. However, ultrasound transducers are opaque; therefore, light must bypass the ultrasound transducer to reach the target point to produce a photoacoustic image. Providing different paths for the optical and acoustic signals results in a complicated system design, increasing the system volume. To overcome these problems, an optically Transparent Ultrasound Transducer (TUT) was developed. Unlike conventional opaque ultrasound transducers, optically TUT can be fabricated by a variety of manufacturing methods and they are suitable for use with specific piezoelectric elements and serve various purposes. In this study, a comparative analysis of the results of using Lithium Niobate (LNO), Lead Magnesium Niobate-Lead Titanate (PMN-PT), and Polyvinylidene Difluoride (PVDF), which are materials used in piezoelectric element-based TUT. LNO is a piezoelectric element widely used in TUT, and PMN-PT has been actively studied recently with a higher transmission and reception rate than LNO. Existing TUT have lower ultrasound resolution than photoacoustic resolution, but they have recently been manufacturing focused TUT with high ultrasound resolution using PVDF. A comparative analysis of the production results of these TUT was performed.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.3E
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• pp.107-110
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• 2010

In this paper, the rationale and contents of the special issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea regarding comprehensive reviews on past, present and future of biomedical ultrasound are described. Brief descriptions of invited articles are given, and efforts by all contributing authors are gratefully acknowledged.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.286-292
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• 2022

As mobile electronics become smarter, higher-level security systems are necessary to protect private information and property from hackers. For this, biometric authentication systems have been widely studied, where the recognition of unique biological traits of an individual, such as the face, iris, fingerprint, and voice, is required to operate the device. Among them, ultrasound fingerprint imaging technology using piezoelectric materials is one of the most promising approaches adopted by Samsung Galaxy smartphones. In this review, we summarize the recent progress on piezoelectric ultrasound micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) transducers with various piezoelectric materials and provide insights to achieve the highest-level biometric authentication system for mobile electronics.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.244-252
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• 2012

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the correlations between acoustic properties, such as speed of sound and normalized broadband ultrasound attenuation, and bone mineral density in femur with high fracture risk. The speed of sound and the normalized broadband ultrasound attenuation in 15 bovine femoral trabecular bone samples in vitro were measured by using a through-transmission method with two matched pairs of ultrasonic transducers with center frequencies of 0.5 and 1.0 MHz. The volumetric bone mineral density of the trabecular bone samples was measured by using micro-computed tomography. The bone mineral density exhibited strong correlations with both the speed of sound and the normalized broadband ultrasound attenuation measured by using the 0.5 and the 1.0 MHz transducers. The highest correlation was found between the bone mineral density and the normalized broadband ultrasound attenuation measured by using the 0.5 MHz ultrasonic transducers. The results suggest that the acoustic properties measured in the femur in vitro can be used as indices for the prediction of femoral bone mineral density.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.585-596
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• 2012

PVDF(poly vinylidene fluoride) and P(VDF-TrFE)(poly vinylidene fluoride-tetrafluoroethylene) are the typical piezoelectric polymers with unique properties. Even they are inferior to conventional piezoelectric ceramics PZT in electromechanical conversion efficiency and interior loss, though they are superior in receiving sensitivity and frequency bandwidth. Their acoustic impedances are relatively close to water or biological tissue and it is easier to make thin film than other piezoelectric materials. Futhermore, the film is so flexible that it is easy to attach on a complex surface. Those properties are suitable for the ultrasound transducers which are useful for medical and biological application, so that various types of polymer transducers have been developed. In this paper, several important considerations for design and fabrication of piezoelectric polymer transducers were described and their effect on the transducer performance were demonstrated through the KLM model analysis. Then, it was briefly reviewed about the structures of the polymer transducers developed for obtaining images as well as the characteristics of the images in several important medical and biological application fields.

• 전자공학회논문지 IE
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.18-23
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• 2012

A method to determine the equivalent circuits of broadband ultrasound transducers is necessary for designing filters that match the impedances of the transducer and the analysis of the transducer. A method is proposed to determine the equivalent circuits of broadband transducers with 2 resonances in the frequency band of interest. The circuit parameters are estimated by iterative Levy method with the measured electrical conductance data. The method is illustrated by computing the conductance and susceptance of the equivalent circuits of 3 types of broadband transducers. The equivalent circuit of a transducer.