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Elastic Waves
弹 被
Capacitive 电器 Unit 4. Acoustic Sensors
Pieroelectric 压电
1. Introduction
Ulerasonic 超声被 2. Elastic waves and their properties
3. Microphones
 Carbon microphones
 Magnetic microphones
 Capacitive microphones
 Piezoelectric microphones
4. Ultrasonic sensors

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4.1 Introduction
 Human ear is an “acoustic sensor” that can sense the audio in the frequency range of
20 Hz ~ 20 kHz and the pressures as low as 210-5 Pa (or 10-12 W/m2 ; that is on the
—

order of one-billionth of the atmospheric pressure) and can function at levels 1013
times higher.
 Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of
human hearing. Ultrasound devices operate with frequencies from 20 kHz up to
several gigahertz. GHR
 Acoustic sensors can sense a sound or ultrasonic wave and transduces it into an
electrical signal. It senses the amplitude, phase, frequency, or time-delay of the
acoustic wave and outputs electrical signals to measure a physical phenomenon.

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 Sound pressure and power density

 There are two equivalent methods of describing acoustic behavior: one in terms of
pressure and the other in terms of power density.
 Although acoustic wave or sound can be described by using pressure units, i.e. newtons
per square meter (N/m2) and pascals (Pa), a more common way is to use sound pressure
level and power density in decibels (dB):

i. Sound pressure level (SPL)

Pa
SPLdB  20 log10 dB
P0
where P0 is the threshold of hearing (i.e. 2×10-5 Pa in terms of pressure) and Pa is the
acoustic pressure. Normal speech is between approximately 45 dB and 70 dB.
ii. Power density
Pa
PDdB  10 log10 dB
P0
where P0 is the threshold of hearing (i.e. 10-12 W/m2 in terms of power density) and Pa
is the acoustic power density being sensed.

Bulk Modaelus (EE549)

体积模量
Sheap Moolulers  Bulk modulus and shear modulus
 The properties of acoustic waves are determined by the media through which the
剪场模量 waves propagate. Some of the properties that affect the behavior of acoustic wave
include the following:
• Bulk modulus (K)
 An indication of the resistance of a material to compression. It is the ratio of volume
stress per unit of volume strain and can be viewed as the ratio of the rate of increase
in pressure to the resulting relative decrease in volume (or to the relative increase in
density):
dP
dP dP
dP
K  V  2 2
[N/m
[N/m ] ]
dVdV/ V dd/ 
• Shear modulus (G)
 A measure of the rigidity of a material or its resistance to shear deformation. It is the
ratio of shear stress to shear strain, and can be viewed as the ratio of the change in
pressure to the relative change in share deformation:
dP
G= [N/m 2 ]
dx / x
where dx is the shear deformation or shear displacement.
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 Loudness
 is an attribute of the auditory perception that ranks sounds on a scale ranging from quiet to
loud. To measure loudness one employs two basic units: the phon and the sone:
i. Phon
A unit of loudness that measures the intensity of sound in decibels above a reference
tone having a frequency of 1000 Hz and a root mean square (RMS) sound pressure of
210-5 Pa.
An alternative definition is ‘‘a unit of apparent loudness, equal in number to the
intensity in decibels of a 1000 Hz tone perceived to be as loud as the sound being
measured.’’
ii. Sone
 A unit of perceived loudness equal to the loudness of a 1000 Hz tone at 40 dB
above the threshold of hearing.
Each 10 phon increase (or 10 dB at 1 kHz) produces almost exactly a doubling of the
loudness in sones:

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4.2 Elastic waves and their properties

 Sound waves are typically longitudinal pressure waves. As it propagates, the sound
changes the pressure along the direction of its propagation.
It has three fundamental properties that are of special importance:
i. Frequency
 The frequency, f, of a wave is the number of
variations of the wave per second, measured in
hertz (Hz, or cycles per second).
ii. Wavelength
Fig. 1
 The wavelength, λ, is related to frequency and is
the distance in meters (m) a wave propagates in one cycle of the wave.
iii. Speed
 The speed of propagation of a wave, c, is the speed (in meters per second [m/s])
with which the front of a wave propagates.
c
These three quantities are related as:   m
f
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 Longitudinal waves
 Acoustic waves in gases and liquids are longitudinal waves, although they can also be
transverse waves in solids.
The speed of an acoustic wave is directly
related to the change in volume and the
resulting change in pressure (say, due to
the motion of the piston in the Fig. 2)

pV K
c   m/s Fig. 2
V 0 0

where Δp is the change in pressure, V is the volume and ΔV is the change in volume,
ρ0 is the density of the undisturbed fluid, and K is the bulk modulus.
In gases, this simplifies to the following:
 p0
c  m/s
0
where p0 is the static pressure and γ is the ratio of specific heats for the gas.
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In solids, the speed of sound depends on the “elasticity” of the solid – more
specifically, on the shear and bulk moduli of the medium.
Table 1. Speed of sound for longitudinal waves in some materials at given temperatures.

 In solids, especially in metals, the dependency of sound speed on temperature is lower

than in gases or liquids. 8

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If an acoustic wave can be modeled as a harmonic longitudinal wave of frequency f, it

may be written in general terms as
p( x, t )  P0 sin(kx   t ) [N/m 2 ]
where p(x, t) is the time- and position-dependent pressure in the medium, P0 is the
pressure amplitude of the wave, and k is a constant, and ω=2πf is its angular frequency.
The amplitude of the wave is
P0 =k  0 c 2 ym [N/m 2 ]
where ym is the maximum displacement of a particle during compression or expansion in
the wave. The constant k is called the wavenumber or the phase constant and is given as
2 
k= =  rad/m
 c
If further consider the loss of energy, an attenuation constant α (with the unit of neper per
meter, Np/m) can be introduced to rewrite the pressure wave as:
p( x, t )  P0e  x sin(kx   t ) [N/m 2 ]
Another important parameter of acoustic waves that affects the wave behaviors, such as
reflection and transmission, is wave impedance or acoustic impedance:
Z = c [kg/m 2 /s]
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Table 2. Typical attenuation

constants for some
representative materials

Table 3. Attenuation constant

(in dB/cm) and its
dependency on frequency

Table 4. Acoustic impedance

of some materials

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 Shear waves
 In addition to longitudinal waves, solids can support shear or transverse waves, in
which the displacement (i.e., vibration of molecules) is perpendicular to the direction of
propagation.
Most of the properties defined for longitudinal waves are the same for shear waves.
However, some properties, such as speed, are different. The speed of shear waves
depends on the shear modulus:

G
c m / s
0

where G is the shear modulus and ρ0 is the density of undisturbed solid.

 Since the shear modulus is lower than the bulk modulus, the speed of propagation of
shear waves is lower (by about 50%).

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 Surface waves
 Acoustic waves can also propagate on the surface between two media and, in particular, at
the interface between an elastic medium and vacuum (or air).
 Surface waves are also called Rayleigh waves and propagate on the surface of an elastic
medium with little effect on the bulk of the medium and have properties that are
significantly different than those of either longitudinal waves or shear waves.
The speed of propagation of a surface wave can be written as:
G
cg m / s
0
where g is a constant around 0.9 that depends on the material. This means that surface waves
propagate slower than shear waves and much slower than longitudinal waves.

 Lamb waves
 In addition to longitudinal, shear, and surface waves, acoustic waves propagate in thin
plates in a unique way dominated by modes of propagation that depend on the thickness
of the plates. These are called Lamb waves (named after Horace Lamb).
 A plate will support an infinite number of modes that depend on the relationship between
the thickness of the plate and the wavelength of the acoustic wave.

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Example 1: Attenuation of acoustic waves in air

Acoustic waves attenuate in air at a rate that depends on a number of factors, including
temperature, pressure, relative humidity, and the frequency of the wave. All of these
have a significant effect on attenuation, but to understand the propagation of ultrasound
in air we will look at the effect of frequency alone. The following data are available for
sound propagation in air:
Attenuation at 1 kHz, 20 ˚C, 1 atm at sea level, 60% relative humidity, 4.8 dB/km.
Attenuation at 40 kHz, 20 ˚C, 1 atm at sea level, 60% relative humidity, 1300 dB/km.
Attenuation at 100 kHz, 20 ˚C, 1 atm at sea level, 60% relative humidity, 3600 dB/km.
Given a sound wave amplitude (sound pressure) of 1 Pa, calculate the sound pressure at
a distance d = 100 m from the source at the three frequencies.
Solution:
Since the attenuation is given in decibels per kilometer (dB/km),
dB/m
we can first to convert it into neper per meter (Np/m) : 20log10 e x dB  ( 20log10 e) x dB
At 1 kHz, 1 Np = 20 log10 e dB  8.686 dB
4.8
4.8 dB/km = Np/m  5.526  10 4 Np/m
8.686  1000
At 40 kHz,
1300
1300 dB/km = Np/m  0.1497 Np/m
8.686  1000 13

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At 100 kHz,
3600
3600 dB/km = Np/m  0.4145 Np/m
8.686  1000
With these, the amplitude at a distance d, which we denote as Pd, is written in terms of
the source pressure P0 as
Pd  P0e  d  Pa 
At 1 kHz,
4
Pd  1 e 5.52610 100
 0.9994 Pa.
At 40 kHz,
Pd  1 e 0.1497100  3.15  10 7 Pa.
At 100 kHz,
Pd  1 e 0.4145100  9.96  10 19 Pa.
 These results reveal that in air, ultrasound can only be used for short-range applications.
 It is perhaps for this reason that the human voice has evolved to use low frequencies.

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4.3 Microphones
 Microphones is a device that converts sound into an electrical signal. It has many
applications, such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls
and public events.
 Microphones are differential pressure sensors where the output depends on the
pressure difference between the front and back of a membrane. Since under normal
conditions the two pressures are the same, the microphone can only sense changes in
pressure and hence may be viewed as a dynamic pressure sensor.
 It may also be used to sense vibrations or any quantity that generate vibrations in
pressure in air or a fluid. Microphones designed to work in water or other fluidics are
called hydrophones.

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4.3.1 Carbon Microphones

 Bell’s microphone
 The first variable resistance microphone was
patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876.
Fig. 3 shows the Bell’s microphone, in which a
liquid solution is used. The resistance between Fig. 3
the plunger and the body of the microphone
depends on sound pressure (which pushes the
plunger into the solution).

 Carbon microphones
 The first practical microphone was invented
by Thomas Edison and was essentially the
same construction as Bell’s microphone,
but the solution was replaced with carbon
or graphite particles, as shown in Fig.4, —
hence its name, the carbon microphone.
Fig. 4
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Sound waves striking the diaphragm cause it

to vibrate, exerting a varying pressure on the
carbon or graphite particles, which in turn
changes the electrical resistance between the
conducting electrode and the conducting
housing.
Higher pressure lowers the resistance as the
carbon or graphite particles are pushed closer
together.
A steady direct current is passed between the
conducting electrode and the conducting
housing through the carbon or graphite
particles. The varying resistance results in
a modulation of the current, creating a varying Fig. 5
electric current that reproduces the varying
pressure of the sound wave.

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4.3.2 Magnetic Microphones

动铁
 The magnetic microphone is also known as the moving iron microphone. They have
Armature 电枢动铁芯 a structure similar to magnetic pressure sensors, such as variable reluctance pressure
sensors studied in Unit 3.
勐铁芯
 Moving armature magnetic microphone
Fig. 6 shows a moving armature magnetic
microphone. Due to the action of sound, the
armature (a piece of iron) moves toward one of the
poles of the iron core, which changes the reluctance
in the magnetic circuit.
If the coil is supplied with a constant voltage, the
current in it depends on the reluctance of the circuit.
Hence the current in the coil depends on sound level Fig. 6
via the position of the armature.
 The moving iron microphone was a slight improvement over the carbon microphone, and
perhaps the only real advantage it had was that its operation was reversible — the

寲
moving iron armature could be made to move under the influence of a current, and by
doing so it could serve as an earpiece or loudspeaker.
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 Moving coil microphone

The operation of the moving coil microphone is
based on Faraday’s law. Given a coil moving in a
magnetic field, a shown in Fig. 7, it will produce
an emf as follows:
d
V= N  V
dt
Fig. 7
where Φ is the flux in the coil and N is the number
of turns.
As the coil vibrates according to the sound, a voltage with appropriate polarity is
generated. The emf, when connected in a circuit, will generate a current and both of
these are proportional to the velocity of the coil.

 These microphones have excellent characteristics, with relatively low noise and
high sensitivity.
 It is the first microphone that could reproduce the whole range of the human
voice.
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Example 2: The moving coil microphone

In a moving coil microphone, the coil moves in and out of
the magnetic field, and the total flux through the coil
changes and thence the emf induced in the coil change. The
change in flux is proportional to the amplitude of sound
and hence the position of the coil within the magnetic
structure. If a sensitivity factor K [mV/Pa] is used to rate
the microphone, the microphone’s output for a pressure at
amplitude P0 is emf= kP0sinωt [mV]. Evaluate the performance of the microphone if
its sensitivity is 20 mV/Pa.
Solution:
The limit of human auditory threshold is 2×10-5 Pa. Hence the produced emf is
20×2×10-5 = 0.4 μV
which is likely below the noise level.
For a normal speech level of about 2 Pa, however, its produced emf is
20×2 = 40 mV
which is signal that can easily be amplified.
Therefore, the microphone is not usable at or near the threshold level, but can perform
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 Ribbon microphone
 Another microphone in the same class as moving armature and moving coil
microphones is the ribbon microphone.
Fig. 8 shows a ribbon microphone, in which the
ribbon is a thin metallic foil (e.g. aluminum)
between the two poles of a magnet. As the ribbon
moves, an emf is induced across it based on
Faraday’s law:
d
V=   V
dt
The current produced by this emf is the output of
the microphone. Fig. 8

 This kind of microphones has wide, flat frequency responses because of the very small
mass of the ribbon. However, the small mass makes them susceptible to background noise
and vibration, and often they require elaborate suspension to prevent these effects.
 Because of their qualities, they are often used in studio sound recordings. The impedance
of these microphones is very low, typically less than 1 Ω, and they must be properly
interfaced for operation with amplifiers. 21

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4.3.3 Capacitive Microphones

 In the early 1920s, it became apparent that the motion of a plate in a parallel plate
capacitor could be used for audio reproduction and hence the introduction of the
capacitive or ‘‘condenser’’ microphone (condenser is the old name for a capacitor).

Fig. 9 shows the basic structure of capacitive

microphone. The operation is based on the two
basic equations of the parallel plate capacitor:
A Q d
C and C   V Q [V]
d V A
Problem: to produce an output voltage Fig. 9
proportional to the distance d between the
plates, a source of charge must be available.
Solutions:
i. To provide with external sources.
ii. To use electret microphone.

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 Electret 检极体 (EE549)
介电体
 Electret (capacitive) microphone
Charge Density  Electrets are the materials, such as fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), barium titanate
(BaTi), calcium titanate oxide (CaTiO3), who can retain an internal electric polarization
电荷窑度 vector to set up a permanent external electric field.
 The electret microphone is a capacitive microphone made of the same two conducting
plates, but with a thin layer of an electret material under the upper plate.
The electret generates a surface charge density
σs on the upper metallic surface and an opposite
sign surface charge density -σs on the lower
metal backplane. This generates an electric field
intensity in the gap, s1.
If sound is applied to the diaphragm, the electret
will move down a distance Δs1 and a change in
voltage occurs as (see Ref. 2):

 s ss1
V  [V]
 0 s   s1
Fig. 10
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If the microphone is provided with a circular diaphragm (i.e. electret) with a large
initial tensile stress, the mechanical sensitivity of the diaphragm is (see Ref. 3):
s1 r2 A
Sm   
p 8Ts 8 Ts
where r is the radius of the diaphragm, where A is the area of the membrane, T is the
tension, and Δp is the change in pressure due to sound.

If ignore the effect from the compression of air in the chamber below electret, the
pressure induced change in the gap length is:
p
s1  [m]
8 Ts / A
Thus the change in output voltage due to sound waves is obtained:

 ss p As
V  ( ) p [V]
 0 s   s1 8 Ts / A 8 T ( 0 s   s1 )

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* Example 3: Design of electret microphone

A small electret microphone is to be designed for use in cellular
phones, made in the form of a cylinder 6 mm in diameter and 3
mm long to fit in a slim telephone. Assuming the protective
external structure requires a thickness of 0.5 mm, the
diaphragm cannot be larger than 5 mm in diameter. The
thickness of the diaphragm depends on the material used.
Assuming a polymer, a reasonable thickness is 0.5 mm and a
tension of 2 N can be used as the electret. The relative
permittivity of the polymer is 6. The gap between the electret
and the lower conducting plate is 0.2 mm (the smaller the gap, the more sensitive the
microphone). The ratio of specific heat in air is 1.4. The polymer can be charged at various
levels, but the surface charge density cannot be very high. We will assume a charge density of
0.2 μC/m2. Calculate the sensitivity of the microphone at standard atmosphere.
Hint: if consider the compression of air in the chamber below electret, the output voltage ΔV of a
electret microphone to a sound pressure Δp is:
 ss 1
V  p [V]
 0 s   s1 ( P0 / s1 )  (8 Ts / A)
where γ is the ratio of specific heat in air of air.
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Solution:
At standard atmosphere, the air pressure is 1 atm, i.e.
P0 = 101,325 Pa.
As the transfer function between the output voltage
and the change in pressure is
 ss 1
V  p
 0 s   s1 ( P0 / s1 )  (8 Ts / A)
one then has
0.2  106  0.5  103
V 
8.854  10  0.5  103  6  8.854  10 12  0.2  10 3
12

1
( ) p
1.4  101325 / 0.2  10 3  8  2  0.5  10 3 / (  (2.5  10 3 )2 )

Numerically, one get

V  6643.7237  1.41  10 9 p  9.37  10 6 p [V ]

Thus, the sensitivity is 9.37 μV/Pa.

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4.3.4 Piezoelectric Microphones

 Piezoelectric effects
 The piezoelectric effect is the generation of electric charge in crystalline materials
(such as quartz, i.e. silicon oxide) upon application of a mechanical stress.
 The opposite effect, often called electrostriction, is equally useful: the application of a
charge across the crystal causes mechanical deformation in the material.
As shown in Fig. 11, in neutral crystal, a deformation in one direction displaces the
molecular structure so that a net charge occurs as shown in Fig. 11(b) and 11(c).
The charges can be collected on electrodes deposited on the crystal and measurement of
the charge is then a measure of the deformation of the crystal.

Fig. 11. The piezoelectric effect in a quartz crystal. (a) Undisturbed. (b) Strain applied in one
direction. (c) Strain applied in the opposite direction. 27

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The polarization vector, i.e. the electric dipole moment of

atoms per unit volume, in a medium is related to stress through P
the following simple relation:

P  d [C/m 2 ]
where d is the piezoelectric constant and σ is the applied stress in the material. In reality,
the polarization is direction dependent in the crystal and may be written as
P  Pxx  Pyy  Pzz
where x, y, and z are the standard axes in the crystal. The relation above now becomes
Pxx  d11 xx  d12 yy  d13 zz ,
Pyy  d 21 xx  d 22 yy  d 23 zz ,
Pzz  d31 xx  d 32 yy  d33 zz ,
Now dij are the piezoelectric coefficients along the orthogonal axes of the crystal.

 Clearly then the coefficient depends on how the crystal is cut.

 To simplify the discussion, we assume that d is single valued, but depends on the
type of piezoelectric material and how it is cut and excited.
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The inverse effect is written as

e  gP
where e is strain developed and g is the constant coefficient related to the piezoelectric
coefficient d and relative permittivity εr as g=d/εr (see Ref. 4).
A third important coefficient is called the electromechanical coupling coefficient and is
a measure of the efficiency of the electromechanical conversion:
k 2  dgE or kij2  d ij gij Eij
where E is the modulus of elasticity (Young’s modulus).

Table 5. Piezoelectric coefficients and other properties in monocrystals

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Table 6. Piezoelectric coefficients and other properties in ceramics

Table 7. Piezoelectric coefficients and other properties in polymers

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 Piezoelectric microphones
 Piezoelectric devices, such as microphones, are often built as simple capacitors。

Fig. 12 shows a piezoelectric device. If assume that a force is

applied on the x-axis, the charge generated is
Qx  dij Fx [C]
Taking the capacitance of the device to be C, the voltage
developed across it is
Qx d ij Fx d ij Fx d
V=   V
C C  ij A
Fig. 12
where d is the thickness of the piezoelectric material and A is
its area.

 Thus the thicker the device, the larger the output voltage. A smaller area has the same
effect.
 Piezoelectric sensors often made of ceramics such as lead zirconite titanium oxide
(PZT) and polymer films such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF).
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Piezoelectric microphone is one of the most common piezoelectric devices. The

structure of a piezoelectric microphone is shown in Fig. 13.

Fig. 13
Given this structure and a change in pressure Δp, the change in voltage expected is
d ij ( pA)d d ij d
V   p [V]
 ij A  ij
 One overriding property of piezoelectric microphones is that they can operates at high
frequencies. Hence they can be used as ultrasonic sensors.
 Piezoelectric sensors have exceptional qualities and a flat frequency response and have
many applications, such as pickups in musical instruments or detection of low-intensity
sound generated by the flow of blood in the veins.
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Example 4. Piezoelectric microphone

A piezoelectric microphone is made of lithium tantalate
oxide (LiTaO3) in the form of a disk that is 10 mm in
diameter and 0.25 mm thick. Two electrodes, 8 mm in
diameter, are coated on the opposite surfaces of the LiTaO3
crystal. The crystal is cut on the 3-3 axis and is used to record
speech at a distance of 1 m from a person. The sound pressure produced by normal speech at
that distance is approximately 60 dB above the threshold of hearing. If the person were to
shout, the sound pressure would increase to about 80 dB above the threshold of hearing. The
threshold of hearing is 2×10-5 Pa taken at a reference of 0 dB.
Calculate the range in voltages produced by the microphone under these conditions.

Solution:
One may write sound pressure in decibels rather than in pascals or newtons per square meter
by
P (dB )  20 log10 P dB
Thus, for a zero reference at a pressure of 2×10-5 Pa , its value in decibels is then:
P0  20log10 (2  10 5 )  94 [dB]

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For normal speech level, P(dB) = 60-94 = -34 dB

P  10 P (dB)/20  Pa   P  10 34/20  0.02 Pa
At an elevated level, P(dB) = 80-94 = -14 dB

P  10 P (dB)/20  Pa   P  1014/20  0.2 Pa

The crystal is cut on the 3-3 axis, its piezoelectric coefficient and relative permittivity are
7×10-12 and 44, respectively. Therefore,
at normal speech level,
d d 7  10 12  0.25  103
Vn  33 p   0.02  8.984  10 8V
 33 44  8.854  10 12
at an elevated level,
d 33d 7  1012  0.25  103
Ve  p   0.2  8.984  10 7V
 33 44  8.854  1012
The output of the microphone changes from 89.84 nV to 0.8984 μV as the voice rises from
normal to shouting.

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4.4 Ultrasonic Sensors

 Ultrasonic sensors are widely used in many applications (typical frequencies are 24 kHz
and 40 kHz), such as finding and obstacle avoidance in robots, presence detection in
alarm systems and for safety in cars.
 Piezoelectric resonators
Most ultrasonic sensors are based on piezoelectric
materials, which have an important ability to oscillate at a
fixed, sharply defined resonant frequency.
The resonant frequency of a piezoelectric crystal (or
ceramic element) depends on the material itself and its
effective mass, strain, and physical dimensions, and is also
influenced by temperature, pressure, and other
environmental conditions such as humidity.
Fig. 14 shows the equivalent circuit of a piezoelectric
device sandwiched between two electrodes. The circuit has
two resonances: a parallel resonance and a series
resonance.
Fig. 14
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The two resonant frequencies of the two resonances are:

1
fs   Hz (series resonace)
2 LC
and
1
fp   Hz (parallel resonace)
2 LC C0 / (C  C0 )
In most applications, a single resonance is desirable and thus a
wide separation of two resonant frequencies is preferred. To
identify the separation, a capacitance ratio is defined as
C
m
C0
With this, the relation between the two frequencies becomes
f p  fs 1  m  Hz 
Thus, the lager the ratio m, the larger the separation between the two frequencies.
The resistance R in the equivalent circuit does not figure in the resonance, but acts as a
damping (loss) factor. This is associated with the quality factor (Q-factor) of the piezoelectric
resonant, given as
1 L
Q C 
R C
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 Ultrasonic sensors
The construction of a piezoelectric sensors for operation in solids or liquids is shown in
Fig. 15, in which piezoelectric element is rigidly attached to the front of the sensor for
transmission of vibration to and from the sensor.

(c)

Fig. 15 Construction of an ultrasonic sensor. (a) Flat, nonfocusing sensor. (b) Concave,
focusing sensor. (c) Photos of a number of ultrasonic sensors.
Fig. 15 (c) shows some ultrasonic sensors: (Left to right) an industrial ultrasonic sensor
operating at 175 kHz, a medical grade sensor operating at 2.25 MHz, an immersible sensor
operating at 3.5 MHz, and a 15 MHz sensor with focusing lens for testing of materials.
 The main difficulty of ultrasound sensors is that the attenuation of high-frequency
ultrasound in air is high, so that the range of these devices is relatively short.
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 Pulse-echo operation
 All ultrasonic sensors are dual — they can transmit or receive.
 Any discontinuity in the path of the acoustic wave causes reflection or scattering of the
sound waves. The received reflection can be an indication of the existence of the
discontinuity and the amplitude of the reflection is a function of the size of the discontinuity.
 Pulse-echo operation: the sensor is driven to transmit an ultrasonic burst and then
switched into receive mode to receive the echo reflected from any object the sound beam
encounters.
The exact location of the discontinuity can be found from the time it takes the waves to
propagate to and from the discontinuity. This time is called time of flight.
This is a common mode for operation in medical applications and in the testing of materials.

Fig. 16 38

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 Application: finding the location/size of a defect

Fig. 16 shows the example of finding the location/size of a
defect in a piece of metal. The front and back surfaces
manifest themselves as large reflections, whereas the defect
usually produces a smaller signal.
The time for the acoustic wave reaching the flaw is:
d
t1  [s]
c
where c is the sound velocity. Since the ultrasonic probe
receives the reflection after an additional time t1 needed for
the reflection to traverse the distance d, the signal is received
back after a time tf =2t1 and in the process the acoustic wave
traverses a distance 2d. The location of the flaw is then
calculated as:
t c
d f  m . Fig. 16
2
 The same idea can be used to create an image of a baby in the womb, to sense a heartbeat,
to measure blood vessel thickness and condition, for position sensing in industry, or in
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 Application: sensing the speed of a fluid (1)

Ultrasonic sensors are also useful in sensing other
quantities, such as the velocity of a fluid.
It is known that sound velocity is relative to the fluid in
vf
which it travels. Therefore, voice carries downwind
faster (by the wind velocity) than in still air. This speed
difference can be measured as the time it takes the
sound to get from one point to another since the speed
of sound is constant and known.
Fig. 17 shows the configuration of the sensor. The
distance and angle of the sensors are known and the
transmit time downstream is
d
t [s]
c  f cos 
where c is the sound velocity in the fluid and νf is
the speed of the fluid. Therefore, the fluid velocity
is d c Fig. 17
f   [m/s]
t cos  cos 
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 Application: sensing the speed of a fluid (2)

Doppler effect — when the speeds of source and the receiver relative to the medium are lower
than the velocity of waves in the medium, the relationship between the observed frequency f ’
and the emitted frequency f is given by:
c  r
f f  Hz .
c  t
where vr is the speed of the receiver relative to the medium, subtracted when the receiver is
moving away from the medium, vt is the speed of the transmitter relative to the medium, added
when the transmitter is moving away from the medium.
(R)
If the sensor is configured as Fig. 18, the frequency of
reflected ultrasound detected by sensor is:
c  f cos  vf
f f  Hz .
c  f cos 
Therefore, one has
f f 2 f cos  2 f cos  2 f cos 
  f  f  f '  f Fig. 18
f c   f cos  c c
from which, the fluid velocity can be obtained as:
f  c
f 
2 f cos 
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* Example 5. Doppler ultrasound sensing of water flow

A Doppler ultrasound fluid velocity sensor is applied to
monitor the water flow in a pipeline. The piezoelectric
ultrasound sensor is used as both the transmitter and
receiver, as shown in Fig. 18. The ultrasound sensor
operates at 3.5 MHz and is installed at 45°to the flow.
The sound velocity in water is 1500 m/s. Fig. 18
a) Calculate the measured frequency for a fluid speed of 10 m/s.
b) Calculate the velocity of water flow if the measured frequency of reflected ultrasound
is 3.45 MHz.
Solution:
a) the change in frequency is
2 f cos  2  10 cos 45
f  f  f '  f  3.5  106  32, 998 Hz
c 1500
Therefore, the measured frequency is
f '  f  f  3.5  106  32, 998  3.467  106 Hz

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b) If the change in frequency (output) is known, the fluid velocity can be calculated
by
f  c
f 
2 f cos 
(3.5  3.45)  106  1500

2  3.5  106  cos 45
 15.15 m/s

 The change of frequency about 32 kHz ~ 50 kHz is a relatively large change in

frequency and is easily measurable by a number of means.
 The calculated value is a very good numerical approximation for all velocities
except for the unlikely case of fluid velocities that approach the sound velocity in
the fluid.

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Classwork 4:

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References:
1. Sensors, actuators, and their interfaces: a multidisciplinary
introduction, Nathan Ida, SciTech Publishing, 2014.
2. Sessler, G. M. "Electrostatic microphones with electret foil." The
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 35.9 (1963): 1354-1357.
3. Scheeper P R, Van der Donk A G H, Olthuis W, et al. A review of
silicon microphones[J]. Sensors and actuators A: Physical, 1994,
44(1): 1-11.
4. https://application.wiley-vch.de/books/sample/3527345124_c01.pdf

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