Investigating the Performance of a Fractal Ultrasonic Transducer Under Varying System Conditions

As applications become more widespread there is an ever-increasing need to improve the accuracy of ultrasound transducers, in order to detect at much finer resolutions. In comparison with naturally occurring ultrasound systems the man-made systems have much poorer accuracy, and the scope for improvement has somewhat plateaued as existing transducer designs have been iteratively improved over many years. The desire to bridge the gap between the man-made and naturally occurring systems has led to recent investigation of transducers with a more complex geometry, in order to replicate the complex structure of the natural systems. These transducers have structures representing fractal geometries, and these have been shown to be capable of delivering improved performance in comparison with standard transducer designs. This paper undertakes a detailed investigation of the comparative performance of a standard transducer design, and a transducer based on a fractal geometry. By considering how these performances vary with respect to the key system parameters, a robust assessment of the fractal transducer performance is provided.