Systematic evaluation of a secondary method for measuring diagnostic-level medical ultrasound transducer output power based on a large-area pyroelectric sensor

A systematic study of the application of a novel pyroelectric technique to the measurement of diagnostic-level medical ultrasound output power is described. The method exploits the pyroelectric properties of a 0.028 mm thick membrane of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), backed by an acoustic absorber whose ultrasonic absorption coefficient approaches 1000 dB cm−1 at 3 MHz. When exposed to an ultrasonic field, absorption of ultrasound adjacent to the PVDF–absorber interface results in heating and the generation of a pyroelectric output voltage across gold electrodes deposited on the membrane. For a sensor large enough to intercept the whole of the acoustic beam, the output voltage can be calibrated for the measurement of acoustic output power. A number of key performance properties of the method have been investigated. The technique is very sensitive, with a power to voltage conversion factor of typically 0.23 V W−1. The frequency response of a particular embodiment of the sensor in which acoustic power reflected at the absorber–PVDF interface is subsequently returned to the pyroelectric membrane to be absorbed, has been evaluated over the frequency range 1.5 MHz to 10 MHz. This has shown the frequency response to be flat to within ±4%, above 2.5 MHz. Below this frequency, the sensitivity falls by 20% at 1.5 MHz. Linearity of the technique has been demonstrated to within ±1.6% for applied acoustic power levels from 1 mW up to 120 mW. A number of other studies targeted at assessing the achievable measurement uncertainties are presented. These involve: the effects of soaking, the influence of the angle of incidence of the acoustic beam, measurement repeatability and sensitivity to transducer positioning. Additionally, over the range 20 °C to 30 °C, the rate of change in sensitivity with ambient temperature has been shown to be +0.5% °C−1. Implications of the work for the development of a sensitive, traceable, portable, secondary method of ultrasound output power measurement, appropriate for clinical diagnostic ultrasound systems, are discussed.