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Electromechanical coupling factor of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic

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Article  in  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · February 2003

DOI: 10.1121/1.1527958 · Source: PubMed

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Electromechanical coupling factor of capacitive micromachined
ultrasonic transducers
Alessandro Caronti,a) Riccardo Carotenuto, and Massimo Pappalardo
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettronica, Università Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 84,
00146 Roma, Italy

共Received 15 February 2002; revised 15 May 2002; accepted 14 October 2002兲

Recently, a linear, analytical distributed model for capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers
共CMUTs兲 was presented, and an electromechanical equivalent circuit based on the theory reported
was used to describe the behavior of the transducer 关IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control
49, 159–168 共2002兲兴. The distributed model is applied here to calculate the dynamic coupling factor
k w of a lossless CMUT, based on a definition that involves the energies stored in a dynamic vibration
cycle, and the results are compared with those obtained with a lumped model. A strong discrepancy
is found between the two models as the bias voltage increases. The lumped model predicts an
increasing dynamic k factor up to unity, whereas the distributed model predicts a more realistic
saturation of this parameter to values substantially lower. It is demonstrated that the maximum value
of k w , corresponding to an operating point close to the diaphragm collapse, is 0.4 for a CMUT
single cell with a circular membrane diaphragm and no parasitic capacitance 共0.36 for a cell with a
circular plate diaphragm兲. This means that the dynamic coupling factor of a CMUT is comparable
to that of a piezoceramic plate oscillating in the thickness mode. Parasitic capacitance decreases the
value of k w , because it does not contribute to the energy conversion. The effective coupling factor
k eff is also investigated, showing that this parameter coincides with k w within the lumped model
approximation, but a quite different result is obtained if a computation is made with the more
accurate distributed model. As a consequence, k eff , which can be measured from the transducer
electrical impedance, does not give a reliable value of the actual dynamic coupling factor. © 2003
Acoustical Society of America. 关DOI: 10.1121/1.1527958兴
PACS numbers: 43.38.Bs, 43.38.Ar 关SLE兴

I. INTRODUCTION tially better than piezoelectric technology for the realization

Historically, the concept of the coupling factor of an
electromechanical transducer, usually called a k factor, was
introduced to characterize its ability to convert electrical en-
ergy into mechanical energy, and vice versa. Following the
early work by Mason concerned with piezoelectric
crystals,2,3 the designers of transducers started to use the cou-
pling factor both to characterize different piezomaterials and
as an index of performance of transducers under practical
configurations.
Actually, coupling coefficients not only depend on the
type of material, but also on the stress distribution, electric
field, and geometry of the piezoelement. Indeed, the coeffi-
cients known as material coupling factors k mat 共e.g., k t , k p ,
k i j ), refer to a one-dimensional geometry and to a static or
quasistatic energy transformation cycle, and can be easily
computed as a combination of appropriate elastic, dielectric,
and piezoelectric constants. In recent years, capacitive mi-
cromachined ultrasonic transducers have shown to be a
promising alternative to piezoelectric transducers, especially
in ultrasound imaging and nondestructive testing.4,5 The ease
of fabrication, integration with custom electronics, wide
bandwidth in immersion operation, and large dynamic range
of the CMUT have indicated that this technology is poten-
Telephone: ⫹39 06 55177081; fax: ⫹39 06 5579078; electronic mail:
a兲
caronti@uniroma3.it
of two-dimensional 共2-D兲 phased arrays for 3-D imaging.6,7
For electrostatic transducers, including CMUTs, only a k
factor has to be defined if the geometry of the membrane is
assumed, as usual, to be circular; further, it is common use to
refer to a dynamic energy transformation cycle rather than to
a static one. Basic references for the dynamic coupling factor
of electrostatic transducers are the book by Kinsler et al.8
and the book by Hunt.9 In Ref. 8, the coupling factor is
defined in a general way as a ratio of energies, in Ref. 9 it is
explicitly defined as a combination of parameters. The two
approaches substantially give the same result, except for a
small discrepancy that will be discussed in detail in the
present work.
Also relevant to the present work are recent papers re-
porting calculation of quasistatic coupling coefficients for
electrostrictive ceramics.10–12 In Ref. 10 the method of com-
puting the coupling coefficient for an electrostrictor is based
on a generalization of the IEEE Standard on
Piezoelectricity,13 while the definition proposed in Ref. 12
generalizes that advanced by Berlincourt et al.14 in a way
that produces a zero value of the coupling coefficient for an
unbiased electrostrictive material. Significantly, a ‘‘univer-
sal’’ equivalent circuit that is applicable to electrostrictive,
piezoelectric and electrostatic transducers, based on the lin-
earized 3-D theory of lead magnesium niobate 共PMN兲, is
derived in Ref. 11, and the theoretical coupling coefficients
for piezoelectric and electrostatic transducers are recovered

J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 113 (1), January 2003 0001-4966/2003/113(1)/279/10/$19.00 © 2003 Acoustical Society of America 279
as special cases. In particular, the expression of the coupling
factor of a single-sided electrostatic transducer given by
Hunt is obtained with an appropriate correspondence of pa-
rameters. Although the lumped equivalent circuit given in
Ref. 11, as well as Hunt’s theory, can describe the first-order
behavior of the electrostatic transducer, the flexural bending
of the diaphragm is not adequately taken into account for
coupling factor evaluation.
In this paper, starting from a definition based on con-
verted and stored energies involved in a vibration cycle, the
dynamic coupling factor k w of a lossless CMUT is calculated
by using both lumped and distributed parameter models. The
use of a distributed model is essential to account for the
flexural vibration of the membrane in the electrostatic cell.
Actually, it is found that k w approaches a peak value of about
0.4 as the bias voltage increases, unlike the lumped model
prediction of an increasing k factor up to unity.
The classical effective coupling factor k eff , which can be
easily measured from the transducer electrical impedance, is
also investigated. It is demonstrated that k eff computed with
the lumped model coincides with k w , but this identity drops
if a more realistic calculation is performed by using the dis-
tributed model.
II. COUPLING FACTOR DEFINITIONS
8
As mentioned in the Introduction, Kinsler et al. define
the k factor of an electrostatic transducer as the square root
of the ratio of stored mechanical energy to total energy
stored in a lossless vibration cycle, and derive a simple ex-
pression of k w using a lumped parameter model. Hunt9 ex-
plicitly defines the coupling factor as a combination of pa-
rameters resulting in a slightly different expression, as will
be discussed later.
According to the latest IEEE Standard on
Piezoelectricity,13 the coupling factors are nondimensional
coefficients that are useful to characterize a piezoelectric ma-
terial under a particular stress and electric field configuration
in the conversion of stored energy into mechanical or electric
work. A graphic illustration of the electromechanical conver-
sion is reported, showing that the static piezoelectric cou-
pling factor, denoted here as k mat , can be defined, with ref-
erence to a static or quasistatic lossless transformation cycle
of a piezoelectric specimen, as the square root of the ratio of
the converted energy W c to the total stored energy per unit
volume W,
k mat⫽ 冑 Wc
W
. 共1兲
In dynamic conditions, that is, when the element is in oscil-
lation, it is still possible to define the k factor as a ratio of
energies,15
k w⫽ 冑 Ec
E tot
, 共2兲
where E c is the converted energy and E tot is the total energy
involved in a vibration cycle. A very common k factor, the
only one that can be easily measured from the electrical im-
pedance, is the effective coupling factor,13
280 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 113, No. 1, January 2003
FIG. 1. Schematic cross section of a CMUT cell.
冑
f 2p ⫺ f s2
k eff⫽ , 共3兲
f 2p
where f s and f p are the frequencies of maximum and mini-
mum conductance, respectively. As demonstrated by Lam-
berti et al.,15 the piezoelectric coupling factor computed ac-
cording to Eq. 共2兲 coincides, for a lossless specimen, with the
effective coupling factor given by Eq. 共3兲, so that the same
physical meaning can be attributed to k eff . In addition, k w is
proportional to k mat according to the following relation:
8 2
k w2 ⫽ k . 共4兲
␲ 2 mat
These results are also important for CMUTs for two reasons:
first, by means of Eq. 共2兲 the coupling factor k w can also be
computed for this kind of transducer, and a comparison with
the piezoelectric coupling factor based on the same definition
is then possible; second, k w can be calculated by using both
lumped and distributed models, and it will be shown that
more realistic results are obtained with the latter.
Calculations of electromechanical coupling coefficients
for CMUTs according to definitions 共2兲 and 共3兲 will be pre-
sented in the next section.
III. COUPLING FACTOR OF CMUTS
A schematic of a CMUT single cell, consisting of a met-
allized diaphragm 共top electrode兲 stretched over a heavily
doped silicon substrate 共bottom electrode兲, is shown in Fig.
1. Many such elements are electrically connected in parallel
to make the transducer, as can be seen from the portion of a
CMUT shown in Fig. 2. The details of the fabrication pro-
cess from different research groups can be found in Refs.
16 –18.
The dynamic coupling factor can be computed by con-
sidering an idealized vibration cycle in which the energy is
converted either to electric or mechanical work, the result
being the same as demonstrated in Ref. 13 for a static trans-
formation cycle of a piezoelectric specimen.
In the following subsections, a lossless dynamic cycle in
which the conversion of energy is from mechanical to elec-
trical work is considered. With reference to the equivalent
circuit of a CMUT driven in transmission shown in Fig. 3,1
this type of conversion takes place when the transducer does
not radiate energy, i.e., Zr⫽0, and it is disconnected from the
electrical source 共e.g., Zs→⬁). In these conditions, the
Caronti et al.: Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers
 FIG. 4. Lumped equivalent circuit of a single cell for the coupling factor
calculation.

intended to operate. Depending on the structural model used

for the diaphragm, analytical expressions for the mechanical
impedance are reported in Ref. 1. If the diaphragm is mod-
FIG. 2. Top view of a CMUT, consisting of a 2-D array of circular mem- eled as a membrane, the lumped inductance, and capacitance
branes. The regions in light gray are membrane electrodes and upper inter- are found to be
connections, the holes around each membrane are used to form the cavity
below by selective etching of a sacrificial material. m 1.446␳ s S 1
L 共em 兲 ⫽ ⫽ , 共5兲
␾ 21 ␾ 21
CMUT is in free oscillation and part of the energy of vibra-
0.9568
tion, in each lossless cycle, is converted into electrostatic C 共em 兲 ⫽ ␾ 21 c m ⫽ ␾ 21 , 共6兲
energy and stored in the transducer capacitance. 8␲␶
The dynamic coupling factor will be computed for a where m and c m are the effective mass and compliance of the
single electrostatic cell by using both lumped and distributed membrane around the resonance frequency, ␾ 1 is the trans-
parameter models; the calculation for an ideal CMUT with formation factor of the cell, ␳ s is the surface mass density, ␶
all identical elements, including parasitic capacitance, is also is the membrane tension per unit length, and S 1 is the area of
reported. the diaphragm. If the diaphragm is modeled as a plate, the
A. Lumped parameter model lumped parameters are
Consider a CMUT single cell with no internal losses, 1.883␳ s S 1
driven by a sinusoidal voltage V⫽V ace j ␻ t and working in L 共ep 兲 ⫽ 共7兲
␾ 21
vacuum, so that no acoustic energy is radiated.
In order to calculate the electromechanical coupling fac- 0.977S 1
C 共ep 兲 ⫽ ␾ 21 , 共8兲
tor we make use of the equivalent circuit of Fig. 4, which is 192␲ 2 D
obtained from the circuit of Fig. 3 by setting Zs→⬁ and Zr
⫽0, and using lumped parameters in place of ZEb and Zm, where D is the flexural rigidity of the plate. The transforma-
whose real parts are vanishing in the absence of losses. In the tion factor is defined as1
circuit of Fig. 4, C 01 is the static capacitance of the cell, L e is C 01V DC
the electrical inductance corresponding to the mass of the ␾ 1⫽ , 共9兲
d0
diaphragm, and C e is the electrical capacitance associated to
the mechanical compliance. These parameters can be ob- where V DC is the bias voltage and d 0 is the effective distance
tained by expanding the expression for the mechanical im- between the electrodes, including the static displacement of
pedance around the fundamental resonance frequency of the the diaphragm.
diaphragm,19 that is, around the point where the device is Suppose now that the diaphragm is in free oscillation
with a velocity v (t), the electrical source being disconnected
from the transducer. The coupling factor can be easily com-
puted by setting in the inductor an initial current I 0 at t⫽0,
representing the amplitude of the transverse velocity, and
calculating the transient of the circuit of Fig. 4. The electrical
current in the loop results,
i 共 t 兲 ⫽I 0 cos共 ␻ 0 t 兲 , 共10兲
FIG. 3. Electromechanical equivalent circuit of a transmitting CMUT. Zs is where ␻ 0 is the natural frequency,
the source impedance, ZEb is the blocked electrical impedance, Zm is the
mechanical impedance, and Zr is the radiation impedance. According to 1
␻ 0⫽ , 共11兲
冑L e C s
phasor notation, boldface is used to represent quantities in the frequency
domain.

J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 113, No. 1, January 2003 Caronti et al.: Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers 281
 FIG. 5. Dynamic coupling factor of a
CMUT single cell with membrane and
plate diaphragm, computed in the
lumped parameter approximation.

and C s is the series capacitance of C e and C 01 . The kinetic

energy is given by
1
EE⫽ C 01
2
I0
冉 冊 冉 冊
␻ 0 C 01
2
⫽
Cs 1
L I 2.
C 01 2 e 0
共15兲
1
KE共 t 兲 ⫽ L e I 20 cos2 共 ␻ 0 t 兲 , 共12兲 According to Eq. 共2兲, the dynamic coupling factor is
2
and the voltage across the capacitance C 01 is k w⫽ 冑 冑 冑
EE
E tot
⫽
Cs
C 01
⫽
Ce
C e ⫹C 01
. 共16兲
I0
v C 0共 t 兲 ⫽ sin共 ␻ 0 t 兲 . 共13兲 A plot of k w is shown in Fig. 5 as a function of the bias
␻ 0 C 01
voltage V DC for a membrane and a plate diaphragm. The
When the diaphragm passes through the position of static physical parameters of the CMUT element used for simula-
deflection, the strain energy variation with respect to the bias tion are listed in Table I 共CMUT III兲. The spring-softening
point is zero and all the energy is in kinetic form. In this effect,20 that is, the increasing compliance of the diaphragm
situation, the total energy involved in a vibration cycle can with increasing bias voltage, has not been taken into account.
be calculated from Eq. 共12兲 as As can be seen, the coupling factor of a membrane is
1 higher than that of a plate, owing to the fact that a clamped
E tot⫽ 共 KE兲 max⫽ L e I 20 . 共14兲 membrane has a higher average displacement. The difference
2
gets lower as the bias voltage, hence the displacement, de-
On the other hand, when the diaphragm has its maximum creases.
displacement, the kinetic energy is zero and the electrostatic The electrostatic spring-softening can be included in the
energy stored in C 01 , representing the energy converted lumped model by roughly decreasing the stiffness of the dia-
from mechanical into electrical form, is given by 关see Eq. phragm by the quantity ␾ 21 /C 01 , 8,9,20 so that the mechanical
共13兲兴 compliance changes from c m to

TABLE I. Parameters of the CMUTs used for coupling factor calculations.

Parameters CMUT Ia CMUT IIb CMUT IIIc CMUT IVd

Membrane radius a ( ␮ m) 52.5 20.0 20.0 25.0

Membrane thickness d m ( ␮ m) 0.5 0.6 0.45 0.6
Membrane collapse voltage V cr 共V) 155 112 82 74
Gap height d g ( ␮ m) 1.0 0.35 0.40 0.35
Resonance frequency f R (MHz) 2.3 6.9 5.2 4.4
Number of elements 9510 1510 1510 930
Total surface area 共mm2兲 100.0 3.24 3.24 3.24
a
Data from Ref. 16.
b
Unpublished data.
c
Data from Ref. 17.
d
Unpublished data.

282 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 113, No. 1, January 2003 Caronti et al.: Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers
 FIG. 6. Dynamic coupling factor of a
CMUT single cell including or not the
electrostatic spring softening. A
lumped parameter approximation is
used for computation.

cm mation, has the same value as the dynamic coupling factor

冉 冊
⬘⫽
cm , 共17兲 k w without spring softening 关see Eq. 共16兲兴. It is interesting to
␾ 21 c m
1⫺ note that if k eff is computed as 冑( f 2a ⫺ f r2 )/ f r2 , the result co-
C 01
incides with k w as given by Eq. 共18兲, including the spring-
and the coupling factor given by Eq. 共16兲 becomes softening effect.

冑 冑 冑
␾ 21 c m⬘ ␾ 21 c m Ce
k w⫽ ⫽ ⫽
␾ 21 c m⬘ ⫹C 01 C 01 C 01
This relation, that was derived according to Eq. 共2兲, coin-
cides with the electromechanical coupling coefficient of a
single electrostatic unit as explicitly defined by Hunt 共Ref. 9,
p. 181兲. An ambiguity exists in the literature between Refs. 9
and 8, because in Ref. 8, p. 351 the reported expression of
the coupling factor is the same as Eq. 共16兲, which does not
include the spring-softening effect. A comparison between
coupling factors including or not this effect is shown in Fig.
6. Note that the discrepancy becomes important as the bias
voltage increases.
As far as effective coupling factor is concerned, accord-
ing to Eq. 共3兲 the frequencies f s and f p , in the absence of
losses, coincide with the frequencies f r and f a of infinite and
zero admittance, respectively. The input electrical admittance
of the circuit of Fig. 4 is
A better evaluation of the variation of the coupling co-
efficients with the polarizing voltage is provided by the dis-
. 共18兲
tributed model, as discussed in the next section.
B. Distributed parameter model
In the previous section we computed the dynamic cou-
pling factor of a single electrostatic cell by using a lumped
parameter circuit. In this section we calculate the coupling
factor by using a more accurate distributed model of
CMUTs,1 including parasitic capacitance and the spring-
softening effect.
Consider a CMUT with no losses, consisting of n iden-
tical microelements electrically connected in parallel, and
driven by a sinusoidal voltage V⫽V ace j ␻ t .
With reference to the equivalent circuit of Fig. 3, the
input electrical admittance can be expressed by the sum of
two contributions:

再 冎
I
1 YEi⫽ ⫽YEb⫹YEm, 共21兲
YEi⫽ j ␻ C 01⫺ . 共19兲 V
„␻ L e ⫺1/共 ␻ C e 兲 …
where YEb is the blocked admittance and YEm is the mo-
Setting YEi⫽⬁ and YEi⫽0, the resonance and antiresonance tional admittance.8
frequencies turn out to be f r ⫽1/(2 ␲ 冑L e C e ) and f a At each antiresonance frequency, YEi⫽0 and the charge
⫽1/(2 ␲ 冑L e C s ), respectively. The substitution into Eq. 共3兲 on the electrodes remains unchanged while the diaphragm is
yields oscillating, because the signal source is electrically insulated

k eff⫽ 冑 f 2a ⫺ f r2
f 2a
⫽ 冑 Ce
C e ⫹C 01
. 共20兲
from the transducer. This condition permits us to evaluate the
dynamic coupling factor, as done in the previous section.
Again, the total energy involved in a vibration cycle is
Thus, as anticipated in the Introduction, the effective cou- the kinetic energy at its maximum value that can be obtained
pling factor k eff , within the validity of the lumped approxi- by multiplying by n the kinetic energy of a single membrane,

J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 113, No. 1, January 2003 Caronti et al.: Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers 283
 FIG. 7. Dynamic coupling factor of a
CMUT single cell with a membrane
and plate diaphragm and no parasitic
capacitance. Simulations based on
lumped and distributed models are
shown.

冕冕 冉 ⳵⳵␺ 冊
2 where a is the radius and k s is the wave number of the
1
共 KE兲 max⫽n⫻ ␳ s dS 1 , 共22兲 membrane,
2 S1
t max

where ␺ ⫽ ␺ (r,t) is the symmetric transverse displacement,

whose analytical expression depends on the diaphragm
model. For a clamped circular membrane without any inter-
action with the surroundings, the transverse displacement in
k s⫽
␻
冑␶ / ␳ s
冑 1⫹
⑀ 0 V DC2

␳ s d 30 ␻ 2
. 共24兲

frequency domain is1

␾ 1 V 关 J 0 共 k s r 兲 ⫺J 0 共 k s a 兲兴 For a clamped circular plate, the transverse displacement has

⌿共 r, ␻ 兲 ⫽⫺ , 共23兲
␲␶ 共 k sa 兲 2J 0共 k sa 兲 the expression1

⌿共 r, ␻ 兲 ⫽⫺ ␾ 1 V
␲ 2D 再 共 K s a 兲 4 关 J 0 共 K s a 兲 I 1 共 K s a 兲 ⫹I 0 共 K s a 兲 J 1 共 K s a 兲兴 冎
S 1 关 J 0 共 K s r 兲 ⫺J 0 共 K s a 兲兴 I 1 共 K s a 兲 ⫹ 关 I 0 共 K s r 兲 ⫺I 0 共 K s a 兲兴 J 1 共 K s a 兲
, 共25兲

where the parameter K s is given by losses, as well as radiation in the surrounding medium, are
␻ ␳s
2
⑀ 0 V DC
2 neglected, the blocked admittance is given by1
K s4 ⫽ ⫹ . 共26兲
D Dd 30 YEb⫽ j ␻ 共 C 0a ⫹C p 兲 , 共28兲
The integral in 共22兲 has been computed numerically for both and the motional admittance is
membrane and plate models. The electrical energy stored in a
vibration cycle is ␾2
YEm⫽ , 共29兲
1 Im兵 Zm其
EE⫽ 共 C 0a ⫹C p 兲 V ac
2
, 共27兲
2 where ␾ ⫽(C 0a V DC )/d 0 is the transformation factor of the
where C 0a ⫽nC 01 is the active capacitance of the transducer CMUT, and Zm⫽nZm1 is the mechanical impedance of the
and C p is the parasitic capacitance. The active capacitance of totality of membranes. Numerical solutions of Eq. 共21兲 with
a single cell has been evaluated numerically, including the I⫽0 have been obtained for several values of the bias volt-
static deformation produced by the polarizing voltage and age, and the corresponding antiresonance frequencies have
neglecting the fringing field. Thus, also the value of C 0a been used to evaluate the total energy; see Eqs. 共22兲–共26兲.
slightly depends on the bias voltage. Finally, k w has been computed according to Eq. 共2兲 with E c
Antiresonance frequencies can be calculated from Eq. given by Eq. 共27兲.
共21兲 setting I⫽dQ/dt⫽0. If mechanical and electrical Figure 7 shows a comparison between the lumped and

284 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 113, No. 1, January 2003 Caronti et al.: Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers
distributed model calculations of the dynamic coupling fac- 1 ⑀ 0 S 1 V DC
2
⑀ 0 S 1 V DC
2

冉 冊
tor of a single cell (n⫽1) with no parasitic capacitance ⫺ x DC ⫽ ⫽ 2, 共30兲
c m0 2d 20 dm
(C p ⫽0), both including the spring-softening effect. For low 2 ⫹d g ⫹x DC
values of the bias voltage, the lumped model prediction ap- ⑀r
proximates to that of the distributed model. For higher val-
ues, the coupling factor yielded by the distributed model is where d m is the thickness, ⑀ r is the relative permittivity and
lower, because the pistoń-like motion of the diaphragm in the c m0 is the low-frequency mechanical compliance of the dia-
lumped model is more effective in the energy conversion phragm, d g is the gap height and x DC is the static displace-
than the actual flexural motion. In other words, because of ment.
the actual nonuniform energy distribution over the mem- When the bias voltage reaches a critical value, the para-
brane area, a greater kinetic energy must be supplied in a bolic curve of the electrostatic force, given by the right-hand
vibration cycle to convert the same electrical energy as the side of Eq. 共30兲, becomes tangent to the straight line repre-
piston motion does in the lumped model. senting the elastic restoring force, given by the left-hand
As can be seen, a quite different prediction results from member. In this situation, the slope of the two curves must be
distributed model as the bias voltage reaches its critical the same at the point of tangency, and derivative of Eq. 共30兲
value; indeed, the coupling factor has a saturation-like be- with respect to x DC yields
havior with a peak value in proximity of the collapse voltage,
in contrast with the increase nearly up to unity predicted by
the lumped model. 1 ⑀ 0 S 1 V DC
2

Since the CMUT performance improves with increasing ⫽ . 共31兲

bias voltage, the transducer is frequently biased near the col-
lapse, and an investigation of this operating condition is then
required. This will be done in the next section.
IV. ANALYSIS OF THE COLLAPSE POINT
A. Lumped parameter model
When a polarizing voltage is applied to the diaphragm of
an electrostatic cell, the displacement can be found by solv-
ing the static equilibrium equation, which is obtained by
equating the restoring force to the electrostatic force.
c m0 d 30
Equations 共30兲 and 共31兲 define the collapse point of the
diaphragm;9,21 beyond the critical voltage, the electrostatic
force overwhelms the restoring force and the diaphragm col-
lapses over the fixed electrode. Solving Eqs. 共30兲, 共31兲 for
x DC and V DC , the maximum equilibrium displacement is
found to be
de
x cr⫽⫺ , 共32兲
3
and the corresponding collapse voltage is

冑
If the cell is represented as a parallel plate capacitor and
8 d 3e
the restoring force is assumed to be linear, the equilibrium V cr⫽ , 共33兲
equation can be written as 27 c m0 ⑀ 0 S 1

FIG. 8. Dynamic coupling factor of a

CMUT, computed with the distributed
model, as a function of the resonance
frequency shift normalized to the fun-
damental frequency ␻ R0 without bias
effects.

J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 113, No. 1, January 2003 Caronti et al.: Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers 285

where d e ⫽d m / ⑀ r ⫹d g is the effective distance between the
electrodes without polarization. Using these relations in Eq.
共9兲 and substituting in Eqs. 共6兲 and 共8兲 with c m
⫽0.9568 c m0 for a membrane (c m ⫽0.977 c m0 for a plate兲,
the parameters C (m) (p)
e , C e turn out to be approximately equal
to the static capacitance of the cell. For a membrane we have
C 共em 兲 ⫽ 冉 C 共01cr兲 V cr
d e ⫹x cr
冊 2
0.9568c m0 ⫽0.9568C 共01cr兲 ,
e ⫽0.977 C 01 , where C 01 ⫽ ⑀ 0 S 1 /(d e
while for a plate C (p) (cr) (cr)
⫹x cr) is the critical value of C 01 . Thus, the coupling factor
given by Eq. 共18兲 approaches unity.
Actually, as reported in Ref. 9, pp. 184 –185, membrane
collapse usually occurs at values of the normalized displace-
ment ⫺x cr /d e substantially less than the theoretical limit
286 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 113, No. 1, January 2003
FIG. 9. Coupling coefficients of a
CMUT single cell with a plate dia-
phragm.
given by Eq. 共32兲. For example, in Ref. 9 was found, for an
electrostatic device experimentally tested, that fall-in oc-
curred at a value of ⫺x cr /d e around 0.22. As noted, this
premature collapse was likely to be caused by the fact that
the central portion of the diaphragm reaches the critical spac-
ing while the average static displacement x DC is still lower
共34兲
than its critical value. With this value of x cr , the critical
parameter C e is found to be about 0.55 both for membrane
and plate diaphragms, and the resulting maximum value of
the coupling factor is 0.74.
The validity of these results is, however, limited to the
lumped parameter approximation. In the next paragraph, the
coupling factor will be investigated near the critical point by
using the distributed parameter model.
FIG. 10. Coupling factor of several
CMUTs with membrane diaphragm
cells. Parasitic capacitance has not
been considered in the simulations.
Caronti et al.: Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers

B. Distributed parameter model
As it is known, the condition for the fundamental reso-
nance frequency ␻ R of a clamped circular membrane is ka
⫽2.405,8 which substituted into Eq. 共24兲 for an electrostati-
cally excited membrane yields
冉 冊␻ Ra
冑␶ / ␳ s
2
⫽ 共 2.405兲 2 ⫺
⑀ 0 V DC
2
␶ d 30
a2
. 共35兲
Note that, according to the spring-softening behavior, the
resonance frequency decreases as the polarizing voltage in-
creases. The absolute maximum value of V DC is the one that
makes the right-hand side of Eq. 共35兲 equal to zero and the
collapse voltage must be proportional to this value, i.e.,
V cr⫽ ␮ 冑 ␶ d 3e
⑀ 0a 2
⫽␮ 冑 d 3e
8c m0 ⑀ 0 S 1
, 共36兲
where 0⬍␮⬍1 is a numerical coefficient. As can be noted,
Eq. 共36兲 exhibits the same functional dependence as Eq.
共33兲, which is derived according to the lumped model. If the
coupling factor k w is calculated, in the way illustrated in the
previous section, as a function of the relative amount
⌬ ␻ R / ␻ R0 by which the fundamental frequency drops be-
cause of the bias voltage, as given by Eq. 共35兲, the resulting
plot is shown in Fig. 8. The effective coupling factor, com-
puted according to Eq. 共20兲 with f a and f r numerically
evaluated, is also shown.
As it is possible to see, unlike the lumped model predic-
tions, for the distributed model the effective coupling factor
k eff does not coincide with k w , so that a measure of k eff from
the CMUT electrical impedance does not represent a reliable
value of k w . Also note that, as soon as ␻ R changes of 15% of
its nominal value, the coupling factor k w is at 85% of its
maximum value.
Figure 9 shows the behavior of k w and k eff of a single
cell with a plate diaphragm as a function of V DC , both com-
J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 113, No. 1, January 2003
FIG. 11. Coupling factor of a CMUT
with plate diaphragm cells for several
values of the parasitic capacitance in
percent of the active capacitance.
puted with lumped and distributed models. It is notable that
all the k factors draw together for low values of the bias
voltage.
A result worthy of note is the one shown in Fig. 10,
where k w is plotted for several CMUTs with circular mem-
branes having different dimensions, stress, fundamental fre-
quency, and collapse voltage, as reported in Table I. As one
can see, the maximum value of the coupling factor yielded
by the distributed model is about 0.4, regardless of the trans-
ducer design. This value seems to be reasonably a bounding
value of the coupling factor k w of an electrostatic cell with a
circular membrane.
For a piezoceramic plate oscillating in thickness mode,
the dynamic k factor is a reduced value of the thickness
material coupling factor k t , which usually takes values in the
range 0.45–0.50. If this range is used into Eq. 共4兲, the cor-
responding range of k w turns out to be 0.40–0.45. Thus, the
coupling factor of a CMUT with circular membranes is very
close to that of a piezoceramic oscillating in the thickness
direction.
Finally, the coupling coefficient of a CMUT is worsened
by the parasitic capacitance, for it does not contribute to the
energy conversion. A plot of k w for several values of C p in
percent of the active capacitance C 0a is shown in Fig. 11.
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a definition of the electromechanical cou-
pling coefficient, involving the energies stored in a dynamic
vibration cycle, has been used to calculate the dynamic cou-
pling factor k w for lossless CMUTs by using both lumped
and distributed parameter models. A strong discrepancy ex-
ists between the lumped and distributed model predictions of
k w as the bias voltage reaches its critical value. The maxi-
mum value of k w , corresponding to membrane collapse, is
close to unity for the lumped model, whereas a quite lower
value of about 0.40 for a cell with membrane diaphragm
Caronti et al.: Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers 287
共0.36 for plate diaphragm兲, which is approached with a
saturation-like behavior, is predicted by the distributed
model. Further, calculations of k w for several CMUTs with
circular membranes, having different geometry and stress,
have shown that the peak value, which is reached at different
critical voltages, is always 0.40. This result permits us to
state that the coupling factor of a CMUT is very close to that
of a piezoceramic plate oscillating in thickness direction, for
which the dynamic k factor has typically values between
0.40 and 0.45.
The effective coupling coefficient k eff has also been in-
vestigated, showing that this parameter is a good estimation
of the device coupling factor only for low values of the bias
voltage, far from the critical point. Actually, k eff coincides
with k w within the lumped model approximation, but when it
is computed using a more accurate distributed model this
coincidence drops and, for practical higher voltages, k eff
must be abandoned as a reliable measure of the CMUT cou-
pling factor.
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