LISTEN2FUTURE: Simulation Results of a 2D PMUT Ultrasonic

Transducer
Roberto GIACCHETTA1, Eduardo MORENO1,2, Adriel I. DOMKE3, Wagner
COELHO4

1 Dasel,Avda del canal 44 Nave 3 ( 28500) Madrid,+34617408847, email: roberto@daselsistemas.com

2 Institute of Cybernetic Mathematic and Physics, Habana Cuba, +5278310771, email:moreno@icimaf.cu.
3 Besna , Buenos Aires. Argentina, +54 9 11 2007 6147, email : adriel.domke@besna.com.ar
4Engineering Program-COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro. Brazil. email:
wagner@peb.ufrj.br

Abstract

This paper proposes a model based on the finite element method for the emission of an array of PMUT
transducers. This array has a two-dimensional array form of 8x8 elements. The results of the FEM model
allow the validation of the angle of the emission pattern through certain delays. The model was developed
in 3D geometry for PMUT monoelements with a frequency of 200 KHz. This work is part of the initial
results of the Listen2Future European project (L2F) which aims to develop a series of prototypes of acoustic
transducers MEMS. This technology is based on the new generation of piezoelectric transducers. They
emphasize miniaturization, energy savings and very low costs. DASEL participates in this project in the
development of a complete PMUT technology demonstrator to be applied in the inspection of aeronautical
and car body train components without contact.

Keywords: PMUT transducers. Finite Element Simulation, Array Radiation, NDT.

1. Introduction

Listen2Future (L2F), is a European project that aims to develop new technology of

ultrasonic transducers of the type MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems). Within
this are specifically the so-called PMUT (Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic
Transducer), that are characterized by emitting and receiving ultrasonic probes, either in
continuous or pulsed mode working in flexural mode. This is a fundamental difference if
we compare with the classic piezoelectric transducers (called as Bulk Transducers or BT)
that assume vibrations of the "piston like" type, which in itself is also an approximation.

Transducers of the PMUT type have the basic characteristic of being formed by very thin
sheets, of active and passive piezoelectric materials compared. These thicknesses are of
the order of microns compared to the classical thicknesses obtained in BT. The PMUT
has its background in the so-called CMUT (Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic
Transducer) which work by capacitive effect [1].
In the case of the classic BT the frequency of the transducer is determined fundamentally
by the thickness of the piezoelectric material in the so-called fundamental thickness mode
[2]. However, in the case of PMUT, the frequency is basically determined by the total
thickness of the layers making up the PMUT, as well as their diameters [3].

Within the European consortium under the L2F project, the project is divided into two
main activities: the development of the entire technology chain and 21 technological
demonstrators or Use Case (UC). In which it is engaged in two of them in the field of
NDT [4]. In the case of Dasel, one of them considers the development of a technology
for the inspection of flat elements of composite materials. These are used, for example in
the aeronautical sector, and inspection of carbody shells. This UC also considers that this
development should be a contactless ultrasonic testing type. In order to eliminate the need
to use water, to facilitate the propagation of ultrasound . For this purpose, transducers are
required to emit and receive through the air. Therefore, it is necessary to work at relatively
low frequencies on the order of hundreds of KHz. With these low frequencies and the
incidence on flat elements, Lamb waves must be produced. Figure 1 shows an outline of
this type of inspection, from a previous European project called Gearbody where Dasel
participated [5].

Figure 1. Contactless ultrasonic system for generating images in plane elements using
Lamb waves. The C-Scan image is obtained by scanning both transducers on the sample.
[5].

The application shown in Figure 1 has the detail of the specific angle of both the
transmitter transducer Tx and the receiver Rx with respect to the normal, which is
obtained by means of a mechanical arm. First, the Tx produces a longitudinal pulse wave
(LPW) that is transformed into a specific antisymmetric mode of Lamb’s waves [5]. This
kind of guided wave travels through the plate producing continuous leakage into the air
in the form of LPW which is detected by Rx.

This previous work was carried out before the L2F project, using BT with air coupling.
Therefore, the development of a more advanced technology using PMUT transducers for
this application is considered within the L2F. The advantage in this new strategy is that
it is possible to adjust the angle of the Tx and Rx transducers using 2D-PMUT array with
electronic delay. In addition, the flexural form of vibration of these transducers is
expected to contribute to reduce transmission and reception losses through the air.

The development of a finite element model (FEM) of an array of 8x8 PMUT elements
constitutes the fundamental objective of this work within the L2F project.
This model is intended to show the vibration mode of the array in various forms leading
to a radiation pattern with different angles. Being able to make this model allows us to
advance in a virtual way within the L2F project. Hence, it is possible to save resources
necessary later in the development of the technology itself.
Modeling will play a role in:
• Understand the modes of vibration.
• Propagation behavior in the material
 • Sensitivity of the technique
resolution and range of array proposed.

2. Setup Modeling Details

In this work, we worked on the version of COMSOL 6.2. Figure 2 shows two projections
of the domain geometry in 3D. It is formed by a first subdomain of the PMUT array as
well as an air subdomain for the study of radiation. This one has dimensions of 14.19
x14.19 x 22 mm. In all this box, 2 mm layers for the Perfect Matching Layers (PML)
were considered.

Figure 2. Geometry used. Left, total domain. Right, internal view of that domain.

Figure 3 shows details of the single element PMUT in the array. The AlScN, and Silicon
were used as piezoelectric active element and passive layer respectively. Each
piezoelement is in turn divided into a central region and by an outer ring as shown in the
figure. Two inverse signals should be applied to both piezoelectric areas, in order to
obtain a better flexural amplitude [6,7]. This structure and the dimensions used in each
element were enhanced according to the recommendation of the participating SEA
company of L2F [6,7]. Table 1 shows the dimensions used, in this element that forms the
array which has a separation of xx mm between each single-element.

Figure 3. Single-element of PMUT. At the center +V0 voltage is applied. At the ring -V0
[6,7].

Table 1. Geometric dimensions

Element Thickness [m] Diameter [m]
 AlScN (ringo) 1 473-307.45
AlScN (centro 1 302.45
Si 10 473

From this single-element, a PMUT array geometry in Comsol, with 8x8 elements, was
formed with a displacement of 993.3 m (distance between centers of two PMUT).

2.1 Materials
The mechanical, piezoelectric and dielectric properties of AlScN are shown in the
following Table 2. Mechanical losses of the isotropic loss factor type with a value of 0.02
[6,7].

Tables 2. AlScN elastic, piezoelectric and dielectric properties.

The lower layer of silicon has the following properties (Table 3).

Table 3. Silicon properties

Young’s modulus E 170e9 [Pa]
Poisson ratio nu 0.28
Density 2329 [kg/m3]

2.2. Physic models.

The following physical models were used:

• Pressure Acoustic, Frequency Domain (acpr)

 • Solid Mechanics (Solids)
o Piezoelectric material
• Electrostatics (es).
• Multiphysics

The acoustic model describes the radiation in the air volume, described by the Helmholtz
equation as it is known. This subdomain defines the layers of the Perfect Matching Layer
or PML, a kind of external boundary condition, which prevents the reflection of waves
on the outer walls of the subdomain. Hence, it likes an infinite subdomain of radiation.

The Solid Mechanic model describes the mechanical vibration of the PMUT elements of
the array, both the piezoelectric layer and the base layer. It imposes a boundary condition
on the entire edge of each Dirichlet type PMUT with zero displacement. In Comsol this
border condition is of the FIXED CONSTRAINT type. The rest of the borders were
assigned FREE boundary conditions.
The Electrostatic model complements the piezoelectric model by incorporating the
dielectric part of the piezoelectric element. This model defines electrical boundary
conditions. The same is GROUND for the lower part of the piezoelement and two
conditions of the TERMINAL type, to the two upper zones according to Figure 2. This
condition, is assigned the voltage value +V0 and -V0 to the two central and annular zones
respectively. This double reverse polarization of the piezoelectric implies a greater
displacement of the center and therefore better performance of the PMUT.

The above TERMINAL condition, if applied to all PMUT in the array would imply a
single central radiation. In our case, in order to achieve bone steering various angles of
radiation. For this purpose, the array elements were grouped by columns. In this way, it
is electrically converted to a linear array of 8 elements. In a given column of 8 PMUTs
were applied the two TERMINAL conditions given by the expressions:
𝜋
𝐶𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 = +𝑉0 𝑒 −𝑖 2 𝑚
𝜋
𝐴𝑛𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑜 = −𝑉0 𝑒 −𝑖 2 𝑚

Where m=[-0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4] values are defined to obtain 4 radiation
angles on each side of the central. . These values for a frequency of 200 KHz are
equivalent to a delay time [-50 -37.5 -25.0 -12.5 12.5 25.0 37.5 50] seg.

Finally, the MULTYPHYSICS model allows the union of the piezoelectric model given
by Solid plus Electrostatic. Additionally, it allows the coupling of the vibration borders
of the upper part of the PMUT with the radiation subdomain.

2.3. Meshing.

Meshing is always a challenge in this type of problem [8]. In this case we worked on a
triangular mesh strategy at the bases of each PMUT monoelement as well as at the base
of the subdomain radiation box. These were brought into the third dimension by means
of distribution mechanism (DISTRIBUTION in COMSOL). The dimensions of minimum
meshing, of each element considering a frequency of 200 KHz, were:
Table 4. Meshing sizes.
PMUT Air subdomain
45 um Lambda/5=360 um

2.4. Solves used.

The Solver employed was the MUMPS which is a direct method of COMSOL solution.
A parametric model was used for the values of m that define each radiation angle. The
problem in question generated a total of 1.8 million degrees of freedom, 8 minutes per
run and a total run of 80 minutes. A PC with 11-generation I5 and 128 GB of RAM was
used. Around 50 GB physical memory/75 GB virtual memory was the maximum RAM
used.

3. Results.

Figure 4 shows two examples of PMUT array vibrations that are obtained as simulation
results for two cases: phase vibration and phase shift. It is worth noting that the amplitude
of these vibrations is higher when the two +V0 and -V0 voltages are used according to
the references [6,7].

Figure 4. PMUT array vibrations. Left, in phase. Right, out of phase.

In the L2F project, working with two voltages in inverse phase will involve the
development of an electronic circuit with twice as many transmitters. This is something
that must be evaluated on the basis of implementation and sensitivity.

Figure 5 shows a sequence of radiation obtained for the 2 extreme delays involved in
addition to the frontal case (no time delay).
Figure 5. Up, radiation plane for results. Down. Examples of radiation images from the
previous central plane. Two extreme angles are considered compared to the central
radiation.

From the images with the maximum delay, a radiation angle of the order of 9 degrees is
calculated. This could be increased. The angles needed to obtain Lamb waves are in the
order of 10 to 15 degrees, for the application developed in a previous project for the
composite sandwich materials. Therefore, an initial angle can be fixed to the two PMUT
array Tx and Rx, in the order of 10 degrees. Then, it is possible by electronic delay, to
adjust the final angle needed.

It is worth to mention that sandwich structure applications do not always remain constant
in thickness throughout the testing area. It is therefore necessary to change the angle of
incidence of the ultrasonic pulses on the plate in order to maintain the tuning of the
antisymmetric mode of Lamb. Hence, the PMUT array system is superior in speed and
accuracy compared with the mechanical motion-based system of the BT. In this sense,
the corresponding participation of Dasel in the UC for this application is addressed within
the L2F project.
4. Conclusion

Within the European Listen2Future project, Dasel participates within its various
objectives. One of these, is the development of a non-contact ultrasonic Lamb wave
technology in composite materials with PMUT. The advantage of array PMUT is that
very precise emission/receiving angles can be obtained using electronic delays. This
paper shows the Finite Element Method modeling of steering in the radiation of a PMUT
array, which refers to altering the angle of the ultrasound beam with respect to the
transducer without moving the probe. Validating the geometry and distribution of PMUT
cells, as well as their sensitivity, is necessary to propagate lamb waves in the material.
This model will allow to design the necessary electronic circuits within the corresponding
L2F Use Case.

6. Acknowledgment

Under grant 101096884 and KDT-010000-2021-0006 Listen2Future is co-funded by the

European Union and Ministerio de Asuntos Economicosy Transformación Digital.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not
necessarily reflect those of the European Union or Chips Joint Undertaking. Neither the
European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. The
project is supported by the CHIPS JU and its members (including top-up funding by
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Spain).

7. References.
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2018 https://www.engineeringsolutions.philips.com/app/uploads/2019/03/CMUT-and-PMUT-Rob-van-
Schaijk-November-2018.pdf.

[2] Silk, M.G. Ultrasonic transductors for nondestructive testing. CRC Press 1984.

[3] Qiu Y., Gigliotti J.V.,Wallace M., Griggio F., Demore C.E.M., Cochran S. and Trolier-McKinstry S.
Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasound Transducer (PMUT) Arrays for Integrated Sensing, Actuation
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[4] https://www.listen2future.eu/project-work/work-plan.
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Cosarinsky, G.; Coelho, W. Ultrasonic Non-Contact Air-Coupled Technique for the Assessment of
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[6] Xu, Tingzhong. Contact stress sensing system based on Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic
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