Acoustic Properties of Alumina Colloidal/Polymer Nano-Composite Film on Silicon

Rui Zhang, Wenwu Cao, Qifa Zhou, Jung Hyui Cha, K. Kirk Shung, and Yuhong Huang

ABSTRACT Alumina colloidal/polymer composite films on silicon substrates have been successfully fabricated using the sol-gel method, in which the crystallite sizes of alumina are between 20 and 50 nm. The density and ultrasonic phase velocities in these films with different alumina ratios from 14% to 32% were measured at the desired operating frequency. We have proved that the density, acoustic phase velocities, and hence the acoustic impedance of the nano-composite films increase with the alumina content, which gives us another option of tailoring the acoustic impedance of the nano-composite film for making the matching layer of high-frequency medical ultrasonic transducers.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TUFFC.2007.270

© 2007, by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.

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