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.