MEMS acoustic emission transducers designed with high aspect ratio geometry

In this paper, micro-electro-mechanic systems (MEMS) acoustic emission (AE) transducers are manufactured using an electroplating technique. The transducers use a capacitance change as their transduction principle, and are tuned to the range 50?200?kHz. Through the electroplating technique, a thick metal layer (20??m nickel?+?0.5??m gold) is used to form a freely moving microstructure layer. The presence of the gold layer reduces the potential corrosion of the nickel layer. A dielectric layer is deposited between the two electrodes, thus preventing the stiction phenomenon. The transducers have a measured quality factor in the range 15?30 at atmospheric pressure and are functional without vacuum packaging. The transducers are characterized using electrical and mechanical tests to identify the capacitance, resonance frequency and damping. Ultrasonic wave generation using a Q-switched laser shows the directivity of the transducer sensitivity. The comparison of the MEMS transducers with similar frequency piezoelectric transducers shows that the MEMS AE transducers have better response characteristics and sensitivity at the resonance frequency and well-defined waveform signatures (rise time and decay time) due to pure resonance behavior in the out-of-plane direction. The transducers are sensitive to a unique wave direction, which can be utilized to increase the accuracy of source localization by selecting the correct wave velocity at the structures.