Review of transducer applications of polyvinylidene fluoride

In recent years, there has been considerable interest expressed in the polymer polyvinylidene fluoride, stemming largely from its piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties. The wide range of applications for this transducer material is reviewed, and a number of applications are described in greater detail, in particular for use as an acoustically transparent membrane hydrophone for transducer calibration and beam plotting and as a pulse-echo transducer in medical imaging.