• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.8 s.173
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• pp.182-191
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• 2005

It is very important to obtain a high quality of bone image for an accurate ultrasonic measurement of bone mineral density. In this study, we suggested a technique to acquire an optimal image by adapting an acoustic lens and a properly selected ultrasonic probe. Also, we have applied an image processing algorithm with which automatically makes a decision of brightness and contrast of image by generating threshold level, a composition of ultrasonic data, an elimination of noise using modified median filter, and a real time interpolation. We could confirm much improved resolution of bone image with acoustic lens attached to the ultrasonic probe and with the image processing algorithm suggested in this study. Therefore, it became possible to precisely diagnose the osteoprosis using ultrasonic imaging technique.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.118-123
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• 2019

The aim of this study investigates the feasibility of scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) with high frequency transducer for material degradation. The test specimen was prepared by artificial heat treatment of Co-base superalloy. The high frequency 200 MHz acoustic lens was used to generate the leaky surface acoustic wave (LSAW) on the test specimens. The matrix precipitates coarsened with thermal aging time, and then grow up to several tens of micrometers. The velocity of LSAW decreased with increasing aging time. Also, it has a good correlation between LSAW and hardness. Consequently, V(z) curve methods of SAM using high frequency transducer is useful tool to evaluate the heat treatment effects on microstructure.

• 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 Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.116-123
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• 2023

A high intensity focuses ultrasound (HIFU) is one of the emerging technologies in the biomedical field. The piezoelectric HIFU transducer is a device that utilizes the thermal energy generated by high ultrasound energy. Recently an operating frequency of the HIFU transducer is to expand above a 7 MHz. In this study, the acoustic pressures and temperature distributions in the tissue that generated by the HIFU transducer at 10 MHz were calculated with the finite element method. In addition, the pressure focusing characteristics of the device were analyzed. The geometrical variables are the piezomaterial thickness, lens shape, water height, and film thickness. The results shown that the acoustic pressure increased and saturated gradually when the height/radius (H_L/R_L) ratio of the lens increased. Moreover, the focal area was gradually decreases with H_L/R_L ratio of the lens. In case of the optimized HIFU transducer, the maximum pressure and temperature were analyzed about 19 MPa and 65℃ respectively. And the -3 dB focused distances in the axial and lateral direction are around 2.3 mm and 0.23 mm respectively.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.374-379
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• 2018

The piezocomposite transducer is widely used because it is highly efficient in transforming electric energy into mechanical energy, and its frequency range is broader than that of other types of ultrasound transducers. A general piezocomposite transducer is composed of an acoustic lens, impedance matching layers, piezoelectric materials, and backing layers. When an input voltage is applied to a piezoelectric material as an active material, it generates sound waves while vibrating. At that time, an impedance matching layer helps the sound waves to propagate forward while reducing the impedance mismatch that may occur at the interface between the active material and its front material. The impedance mismatch has a negative effect on the signal of an ultrasound transducer; thus, it is important to design a matching layer to overcome the issue. In this study, an optimized feature of a matching layer with gradient properties is studied. An objective function is defined to minimize both the average and the deviation of the reflection coefficients that are functions of the frequencies. As a result, an improvement in the signal characteristics with respect to the sensitivity and bandwidth is reported.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.40-47
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• 1993

Composites composed of a precipitation harden 2124 alloy matrix reinforced by SiC whiskers, which are fabricated by powder metallugy, are suscepttible to fatigue damage due to the pile-up of moving dislocation and the microcrack initiation along SiC-Al interfaces, especially at the external surfaces of a body. The initial process, such as pile-up of dislocation or microcrack, that corresponds to the stage I during fatigue failure process are too small to be detected and characterized by conventional ultrasonic technique. This paper describes the applicability of an acoustic microscope with Line-Focus-Beam(LFB) lens of 225MHz to evaluate fatigue damage of SiC whiskers reinforced Al alloy. The specimens which were 6.6mm thick, 13mm wide, and 105mm long in the gage section were fatigued in tension-tension under load control. The velocity of leaky surface and leaky pseudosurface acoustic waves are obtained by FFT analysis technique from V(z) curve which is a record of output of piezoelectric transducer. These results are discussed with the change of number of fatigue cycles. The result obtained by acoustic microscope is compared with that by ultrasonic technique generated at 5MHz with conventional surface wave transducers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.200-208
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• 1989

To the purpose of preparation for investigating aspect of material that not revealed by the light microscope and extending our knowledge in applicable field, a scanning acoustic microscope system of 200MHz was organized and appraised its performance with experiments. Professor N.CHUBACHI in Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan provided the ZnO transducer with lens. The system for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic pulses of 200nsec was organized with a rectangular audio wave generator for modulation of 200MHz carrier wave, gating system for transmitting and receiving, mixer for converting intermediate frequency, a directional coupler, ZnO transducer, radio frequency amplifiers. detecter and personal computer. The Scanning system was driven in micro steps with three stepping motors in the direction of x, y and z axes. The system was a reflecting type scanning acoustic microscope and the operation program processed graphics data from receiving echo intensities. Photograph of fish scale obtained by optical microscope was compared with its image by the scanning acoustic microscope organized here. The result was satisfiable.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4431-4440
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• 2022

An advanced nuclear reactor based on molten salts including a molten salt reactor and pyroprocessing needs a sensitive monitoring system suitable for operation in harsh environments with limited access. Multi-element detection is challenging with the conventional technologies that are compatible with the in-situ operation; hence laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been investigated as a potential alternative. However, limited precision is a chronic problem with LIBS. We increased the precision of LIBS under high temperature by protecting optics using a gas protective layer and correcting for shotto-shot variance and lens-to-sample distance using a laser-induced acoustic signal. This study investigates cerium as a surrogate for uranium and corrosion products for simulating corrosive environments in LiCl-KCl. While the un-corrected limit of detection (LOD) range is 425-513 ppm, the acoustic-corrected LOD range is 360-397 ppm. The typical cerium concentrations in pyroprocessing are about two orders of magnitude higher than the LOD found in this study. A LIBS monitoring system that adopts these methods could have a significant impact on the ability to monitor and provide early detection of the transient behavior of salt composition in advanced molten salt-based nuclear reactors.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
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• v.35D no.12
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• pp.92-98
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• 1998

In this paper, we implemented an angularly multiplexed volume holographic memory system using an AOD that is controlled electronically, with rapid access time(10$mutextrm{s}$) and accurate repeatability of the reference beam. First we designed an AOD-based angular multiplexing system without the frequency compensation of the object beam, and magnified the deflection angle of AOD through the combination of lens so that we increased the storage capacity up to six times. Finally fifty-one images were stored experimentally in a photorefractive material of 1㎤ Fe:LiNbO$_3$.