A Graphical Database for Streamlined Single Crystal Transducer Design

Single crystal piezoelectrics promise to revolutionize underwater acoustic and ultrasonic transducers with broader bandwidths, greater resolution, greater range, reduced transducer size and weight, and reduced power requirements. However, there are many differences between the properties of single crystal and ceramic piezoelectrics which make it difficult to simply replace ceramic with crystal in existing transducer designs. For this SBIR program TRS propose to develop a user friendly, graphical program that will serve as a toolkit for transducer designers, allowing them to quickly evaluate a range of design parameters that have already been verified by established transducer models using a consistent data set. By implementing a database and simple model approach based on empirical data, various transducer types and parameters can be tested with limited prior knowledge of single crystal properties. Through the graphical interface, the user will be able to choose performance characteristics and observe output data and drawings of calculated transducer components. The Phase I program will focus on tonpilz transducers for sonar.