Ceramic-Polymer Additive Manufacturing System for Ultrasound Transducers

Abstract

A modified multi-layer lithography process is used to additively manufacture highresolution netshape ceramic structures by photopolymerizing a ceramic-polymer slurry using structured light patterns. This paper will discuss the development of a low-cost, high speed manufacturing process method for the fabrication of piezoelectric ceramic transducer elements in the 1-25 MHz frequency range. The key considerations in the development of the process including the selection and optimization of slurry materials for the deposition of PZT 5H materials, optical exposure parameters, debinding/sintering profiles, process monitoring, and post manufacturing processing. Ongoing work includes improvements to the materials properties, improved throughput and geometric fidelity.