• Laser Solutions
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1-5
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• 2012

We demonstrate that reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coated thin aluminum film is an effective optoacoustic transmitter for generating high pressure and high frequency ultrasound previously unattainable by other techniques. The rGO layer of different thickness is deposited between a 100 nm-thick aluminum film and a glass substrate. Under a pulsed laser excitation, the transmitter generates enhanced optoacoustic pressure of 64 times the aluminum-alone transmitter. A promising optoacoustic wave generation is possible by optimizing thermoelasticity of metal film and thermal conductivity of rGO in the proposed transmitter for laser-induced ultrasound (LIUS) applications.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.185-192
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• 2002

Ultrasound has been found useful as a therapeutic modality for the reduction of muscular and tendinous spasm. It has also been utilized for pain and other pathologic conditions through the ability of soundwaves to introduce molecules of chemical substances through the skin by a process. Choice of the transmission medium is very important for effective ultrasound treatment in clinical field. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of various ultrasound conduction media in regard to ultrasound conductivity and degree of absorption, evaporation and of skin irritation. The media used in this study were Antiphlamine, Sacch lotion, Stereogel, Trastgel, Antiphlamine S lotion, and Mentholatum lotion that have been used in clinical medicine. The study revealed that Antiphlamine was not compatible with a good ultrasound transmitter. Other media excluding Antiphlamine were compatible with a good ultrasound conductor, but they had some drawback with their nature of higher absorption, evaporation and skin irritation. The medium that was prepared by mixing of Antiphlamine with Gel in 1 to 10 ratio was a good ultrasound transmitter and extents of absorption and evaporation and of skin irritation of it were less than the other media.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.297.2-297.2
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• 2016

Photoacoustic generation of ultrasound is an effective approach for development of high-frequency and high-amplitude ultrasound transmitters. This requires an efficient energy converter from optical input to acoustic output. For such photoacoustic conversion, various light-absorbing materials have been used such as metallic coating, dye-doped polymer composite, and nanostructure composite. These transmitters absorb laser pulses with 5-10 ns widths for generation of tens-of-MHz frequency ultrasound. The short optical pulse leads to rapid heating of the irradiated region and therefore fast thermal expansion before significant heat diffusion occurs to the surrounding. In this purpose, nanocomposite thin films containing gold nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes (CNTs), or carbon nanofibers have been recently proposed for high optical absorption, efficient thermoacosutic transfer, and mechanical robustness. These properties are necessary to produce a high-amplitude ultrasonic output under a low-energy optical input. Here, we investigate carbon nanotube (CNT)-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite transmitters and their nanostructure-originated characteristics enabling extraordinary energy conversion. We explain a thermoelastic energy conversion mechanism within the nanocomposite and examine nanostructures by using a scanning electron microscopy. Then, we measure laser-induced damage threshold of the transmitters against pulsed laser ablation. Particularly, laser-induced damage threshold has been largely overlooked so far in the development of photoacoustic transmitters. Higher damage threshold means that transmitters can withstand optical irradiation with higher laser energy and produce higher pressure output proportional to such optical input. We discuss an optimal design of CNT-PDMS composite transmitter for high-amplitude pressure generation (e.g. focused ultrasound transmitter) useful for therapeutic applications. It is fabricated using a focal structure (spherically concave substrate) that is coated with a CNT-PDMS composite layer. We also introduce some application examples of the high-amplitude focused transmitter based on the CNT-PDMS composite film.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.148-150
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• 2006

In this paper, the applicability of an UET(ultrasound excited thermography) for a defect detection of the welded receptacle is described. An UET(ultrasound excited thermography) is a defect-selective and fast imaging tool for damage detection. A high power ultrasound-excited vibration energy with pulse durations of 280ms is injected into the outer surface of the welded receptacle made of Al material. An ultrasound vibration energy sent into the welded receptacle propagate inside the sample until they are converted into the heat in the vicinity of the defect. The injection of the ultrasound excited vibration energy results in heat generation so that the defect is turned into a local thermal wave transmitter. Its local heat emission is monitored by the thermal infrared camera. And they are processed by the image recording system. Measurement was performed on aluminum receptacle welded by using Nd:YAG laser. The observed thermal image revealed two area of defects along the welded seam.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.1025-1031
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• 2007

GPS is widely used for positioning applications and attitude of a vehicle can be found also with multiple antennas. However, extremely weak signal level prevents GPS from indoor operation. DR with accelerometers and gyros and landmark based localization method used for indoor applications increase complexity and cost. In this paper, a simple but very efficient ultrasound based attitude determination system which determines both position and attitude in WSN is given. The range between transmitter and receivers are measured using the arrival time difference between ultrasound and RF signal. The 3 dimensional positions can be found using more than 3 range measurements. Furthermore, if more than 2 transmitters are used, the attitude can be determined using the baseline vectors obtained by differencing transmitter and receiver positions. The prototype system is implemented to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. In addition, an error analysis shows the relation between the attitude error and basel me length, quality of measurement and orientation of a vehicle. The static and dynamic experiments performed by micro mobile robot shows accurate position with less than 1.5cm error and attitude with less than 1 degree error can be obtained continuously with 20cm baseline. It is expected that these results can be adapted without modification to indoor applications such as home cleaning robot and autonomous wheelchair maneuvering.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.10b
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• pp.273-275
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• 2005

Active thermography is being used since several years for remote non-destructive testing. It provides thermal images for remote detection and imaging of damages. Also, it is based on propagation and reflection of thermal waves which are launched from the surface into the inspected component by absorption of modulated radiation. For energy deposition, it use external heat sources (e.g., halogen lamp or convective heating) or internal heat generation (e.g., microwaves, eddy current, or elastic wave). Among the external heat sources, the ultrasound is generally used for energy deposition because of defect selective heating up. The heat source generating a thermal wave is provided by the defect itself due to the attenuation of amplitude modulated ultrasound. A defect causes locally enhanced losses and consequently selective heating up. Therefore amplitude modulation of the injected ultrasonic wave turns a defect into a thermal wave transmitter whose signal is detected at the surface by thermal infrared camera. This way ultrasound thermography(UT) allows for selective defect detection which enhances the probability of defect detection in the presence of complicated intact structures. In this paper the applicability of UT for fast defect detection is described. Examples are presented showing the detection of defects in PCB material. Measurements were performed on various kinds of typical defects in PCB materials (both Cu metal and non-metal epoxy). The obtained thermal image reveals area of defect in row of thick epoxy material and PCB.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2007

The energy efficiency of a self-powered wireless sensing system for pressure monitoring in injection molding is analyzed using Bond graph models. The sensing system, located within the mold cavity, consists of an energy converter, an energy modulator, and a ultrasonic signal transmitter. Pressure variation in the mold cavity is extracted by the energy converter and transmitted through the mold steel to a signal receiver located outside of the mold, in the form of ultrasound pulse trains. Through Bond graph models, the energy efficiency of the sensing system is characterized as a function of the configuration of a piezoceramic stack within the energy converter, the pulsing cycle of the energy modulator, and the thicknesses of the various layers that make up the ultrasonic signal transmitter. The obtained energy models are subsequently utilized to identify the minimum level of signal intensity required to ensure successful detection of the ultrasound pulse trains by the signal receiver. The Bond graph models established have shown to be useful in optimizing the design of the various constituent components within the sensing system to achieve high energy conversion efficiency under a compact size, which are critical to successful embedment within the mold structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.369-369
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• 2016

A nanostructure composite is a highly suitable substance for photoacoustic ultrasound generation. This allows an input laser beam (typically, nanosecond pulse duration) to be efficiently converted to an ultrasonic output with tens-of-MHz frequency. This type of energy converter has been demonstrated by using a carbon nanotube (CNT)-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite film that exhibit high optical absorption, rapid heat transition, and mechanical durability, all of which are necessary properties for high-amplitude ultrasound generation. In order to develop the CNT-PDMS composite film, a high-temperature chemical vapor deposition (HTCVD) method has been commonly used so far to grow CNT and then produce a CNT-PDMS composite structure. Here, instead of the complex HTCVD, we use a mixed solution of hydrophobic multi-walled CNT and dimethylformamid (DMF) and fabricate a solution-processed CNT-PDMS composite film over a spherically concave substrate, i.e. a focal energy converter. As the solution process can be applied over a large area, we could easily fabricate the focal transmitter that focuses the photoacoustic output at the moment of generation from the CNT-PDMS composite layer. With this method, we developed photoacoustic energy converters with a large diameter (>25 mm) and a long focal length (several cm). The lens performance was characterized in terms of output pressure amplitude for an incident pulsed laser energy and focal spot dimension in both lateral and axial. Due to the long focal length, we expect that the new lens can be applied for long-range ultrasonic treatment, e.g. biomedical therapy.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.429-440
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• 2007

A coded excitation has been studied to improve the performance for ultrasound imaging in term of SNR, imaging frame rate, contrast to tissue ratio, and so forth. However, it requires a complicated arbitrary waveform transmitter for each active channel that is typically composed of a multi-bit Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) and a linear power amplifier (LPA). Not only does the LPA increase the cost and size of a transmitter block, but it consumes much power, increasing the system complexity further and causing a heating-up problem. This paper proposes an optimized 1.5bit fourth order sigma-delta modulation technique applicable to design an efficient arbitrary waveform generator with greatly reduced power dissipation and hardware. The proposed SDM can provide a required SQNR with a low over-sampling ratio of 4. To this end, the loop coefficients are optimized to minimize the quantization noise power in signal band while maintaining system stability. In addition, the decision level for the 1.5 bit quantizer is optimized for a given input waveform, which results in the SQNR improvement of more than 5dB. Computer simulation results show that the SQNR of a FM(frequency modulated) signal generated by using the proposed method is about 26dB, and the peak side-lobe level (PSL) of its compressed waveform on receive is -48dB.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.258-263
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• 1999

In this study, the numerical and experimental investigations were conducted to understand ultrasonic wave propagation and to evaluate the degree of fiber waviness in thick composites nondestructively. The path, energy and traveling time of insonified wave were predicted by adopting the ray and plane wave theories. In the analysis, the composites were assumed to have continuous fiber with sinusoidal waviness in a matrix and were modeled as stacks of infinitesimally short length off-axis elements with varying fiber orientation along the length direction. From the experiments on the specially fabricated thick composite specimens with various degrees of uniform fiber waviness, the energy distributions of received wave were obtain for the various positions of transmitter. It was observed that the energy of wave was converged to the adjacent peaks of fiber waviness. The location where maximum energy of wave was detected from the experiments showed good agreement with the location obtained from theoretical predictions. Finally, the test procedure was Proposed to evaluate fiber waviness in thick composites by considering the energy of wave and relative distance between transmitter and receiver.