Omega introduces OPT5400 a new lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric ceramic for use in medical ultrasound transducers.

This material provides ultrasound transducers with greatly improved performance over ones fabricated from standard commercial PZT materials.

OPT5400 has been recently evaluated by a major medical ultrasound probe manufacturer and it was found that transducer probes fabricated from this material showed superior performance and uniformity.

In this evaluation OPT5400 was tested in side by side comparisons with a standard commercial PZT sold for medical ultrasound applications in 256 element transducer arrays.

It was found during these tests that transducer fabricated from the OPT5400 provided a signal that was 1.5 times better (150 mV vs. 100 mV) than the transducer fabricated from the standard commercial material. The customer stated that this signal strength is very important for them.

The customer also found that the signal strength from element to element accross the array was much more uniform in the transducer fabricated from the OPT 5400 material versus the standard commercial PZT. In addition, the elements in the OPT 5400 transducer showed no discolorations or visual defects whereas many of the ones in the standard PZT array had dark colored spots indicating impurities in the material. It was surmised by the customer that these dark colored impurites in the commercial PZT were at least partly responsible for the variation in signal strength between the elements in that array.

The complete set of properties of OPT 5400 are listed at https://www.omegapiezo.com/ceramic-components/. This material can be produced in prototype, pilot level and full production levels so please contact Omega if you have interest in evaluating it.