Patent ID: 9647195
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: B06B,G01S,G10K,H01L,H04R

Claim:
1. A piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (pMUT) array, comprising: a plurality of piezoelectric transducer element populations disposed over a substrate, wherein for each of the element populations, a size of a piezoelectric membrane of a first transducer element of the element population is different than a size of a piezoelectric membrane of a second transducer element of the element population; a plurality of sets of electrode rails disposed over the substrate, wherein each set of electrode rails is coupled to only a respective one of the transducer element populations, wherein a first electrode rail of the set of electrode rails is electrically coupled to a drive/sense electrode of the first transducer element of the respective one of the transducer element populations and a second electrode rail of the set of electrode rails is electrically coupled to a drive/sense electrode of the second transducer element of the respective one of the transducer element populations, and further wherein the plurality of sets of electrode rails form a linear array across a first dimension of the substrate, wherein each of the piezoelectric transducer element populations comprises a linear array across a second dimension of the substrate, and wherein the piezoelectric membranes of a first element population are circular or spheroidal with differing diameters.