TY - CONF A1 - Unger, Alexander A1 - Hoffmann, Maik A1 - Ho, Min-Chieh A1 - Park, Kwan Kyu A1 - Khuri-Yakub, Butrus T. A1 - Kupnik, Mario T1 - Finite element analysis of mechanically amplified CMUTs T2 - Proceedings, 2013 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium N2 - We introduce the possibility of improving a single-cell capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) for air-coupled ultrasound by simply adding a hollow conical-shaped structure (horn) on top of the CMUT plate. The main objective is to improve both transmit and receive sensitivity by lowering the center-to-average displacement ratio, which for bending plate operated devices inherently is limited. In addition, for receive mode the force generated from the impinging sound pressure wave is concentrated to the center of the plate, resulting in larger signals and, in contrast to piston-shaped plates, the horn has the advantage of only moderately increasing the modal mass of the structure. By using finite element analysis and first sound pressure measurements of our modified CMUT, we demonstrate that this idea is feasible and promising for air-coupled CMUTs operating at frequencies below 150kHz, as it has been been proven to be successful for commercially available piezoelectric - driven bending plate devices as well. Y1 - 2013 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-UBICO/frontdoor/index/index/docId/10009 SP - 287 EP - 290 PB - IEEE ER -