Patent ID: 8599648

Claim:
A modal piezoelectric transducer comprising: a shell that is in the form of a closed ring member that includes a plurality of adjacently disposed indentation sections and a plurality of intermediate sections that respectively interconnects adjacent indentation sections; a plurality of piezoelectric members and a plurality of bridge members that are together in the form of a closed piezoelectric ring structure, said plurality of piezoelectric members and plurality of bridge members supported within said shell with adjacent piezoelectric members being interconnected by a respective bridge member; each said shell indentation section comprised of a lever arm that is coupled between adjacent intermediate sections of said shell; a radiating piston attached to each lever arm of the shell; each said shell intermediate section comprised of a fixed section that is mounted to the bridge member; and means for the activation of the piezoelectric members providing magnified displacement to said pistons and greater loading of the medium to provide enhanced output at a lower resonance frequency.