Patent ID: 8085621

Claim:
In combination in an electroacoustic transducer, a housing, a resonating structure, said resonating structure containing at least one piezoelectric component and at least one acoustic transmission line, electrical conducting means attached to each electrode of said piezoelectric component, said acoustic transmission line characterized in that it contains two parallel surfaces and further characterized in that the length between the two parallel surfaces is approximately ¼ wavelength in the vicinity of the frequency of resonance, f R , of said resonating structure, one of the parallel surfaces is further characterized in that it is connected by attachment means to said piezoelectric component, and the other parallel surface characterized in that it is a radiating surface that is acoustically coupled to a fluid medium that is capable of transmission of acoustic energy at frequencies in the vicinity of f R , that travel through said fluid medium both away from and towards said radiating surface, said radiating surface further characterized in that the length of the dimension of a line across the surface and through the center at any given angle is designed so that the ratio of the length of the line divided by the wavelength of sound in the transmission medium at a frequency in the vicinity of the resonant frequency of the resonating structure will be of the proper value to produce the desired radiating beam pattern of acoustic energy into the transmission medium in a plane characterized in that it is perpendicular to the radiating surface and further characterized in that the intersection of said plane and said radiating surface is also perpendicular to said line across the surface.