Fabrication and Characterization of Single Crystal Cymbals

Cymbal transducers are made using single crystal relaxor ferroelectric PMN-PT. An electrically conductive adhesive film with uniform geometry and thickness is used to bond the metal cymbal caps to the single crystal. Upon curing, the bond exhibits good mechanical strength under both static and dynamic test conditions. It is found that the capacitance and d ₃₃ of the cymbal drop markedly upon curing as compared to the single crystal disk. It is demonstrated that this is not due to depoling during the adhesive cure stage but rather clamping of the single crystal disk by the stiff metal cymbal caps.

Keywords:

• Single crystal ferroelectric
• transducer

Acknowledgments

The author is privileged to have been a student of Professor Newnham at Penn State from 1991–1997. I heartily congratulate him on the occasion of his 75^th birthday. I also want to extend thanks to him for introducing me to the immensely interesting field of piezoelectric composites and transducers. He is an outstanding teacher and I am grateful for the all the knowledge that he shared with me getting me started in my career.

I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Ming-Jen Pan of the Materials Group at NRL and Dr. Richard J. Meyer, Jr. of ARL-Penn State for their discussions and insights on single crystals. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the Office of Naval Research for their financial support.