New technique for characterizing ultrasonic transducers independently of pulser and receiver electronics

An experimental technique for characterizing ultrasonic transducers operated in pulse/echo mode is described. The technique permits a self-calibrated measurement of a pulse/echo voltage transfer function for an unknown transducer, dependent only on the acoustical configuration and the electrical load impedance Z_L seen by the transducer on reception. The effects of firing voltage, pulser electronics, and receiver gain and filtering are completely removed from the measured transfer function. Varying the load impedance and repeating the measurement allows the direct calculation of characteristic transfer functions that are independent of Z_L as well. These functions permit simple prediction of transducer performance in any new pulser/receiver configuration. This technique is demonstrated for a commercially available transducer, and transducer performance is predicted and verified in a new electrical configuration