| abstract |
Large-area flexible piezoelectric composite transducer elements and large-area arrays of such transducer elements have sufficient flexibility to conform to the contours of the human anatomy, e.g., the hip, spine. These transducer elements and arrays support at least 2.0 mm deflection under flexural bending, facilitating the more efficient coupling and transfer of acoustic energy to the body. The two techniques for fabrication processing are the spiral fiber method and the dice-and-fill method. The transducer system incorporates a flexible matching layer and a flexible housing fabricated with the same polymer component used in the array and matching layer. The resulting flexible transducer system allows for medical therapeutic applications as promoting the healing of bone fractures and tissue wounds at any section or multiple sections of the human anatomy, and can be extended to medical diagnostic ultrasound and nondestructive testing applications. |