Enhancing 2D phased array sensitivity and bandwidth using in-probe electronics

An in-probe electronics printed circuit board (PCB) has been designed and built to improve the electrical matching issue in 2D ultrasonic array design. Each array channel has a dedicated line driver and the design utilized has low power consumption and importantly, a small footprint. Thus, the design is compatible with NDE probes, in which 128 elements are typical. The in-probe PCB was evaluated using a piezoceramic element scaled to obtain a 1kΩ impedance. Connected to the line driver, but otherwise acoustically un-matched, un-backed, the pulse-echo response from this element was acquired. Experimental results show an approximate 50dB improvement in sensitivity and an enhancement in bandwidth from 14.4% to 22.5% when compared to the ceramic interfaced directly to a standard 2m coaxial cable.