Acoustic impedance
The acoustic impedance (Za) of a material is a measure of the propagation of the acoustic
wave throughout the interfaces of different media. The wave transfer is maximized when
the two media have the same acoustic impedance. The higher is the difference of impedance
between the two media, the higher would be the acoustic wave’s fraction reflected at the
interface. In the case of a transducer, its efficiency is linked to the acoustic matching between
the piezoceramic (high Za ~ 30-33 [106 Kg / m2s]) and the investigated media (water,
biological tissues) to which is in contact (low Za ~ 1-1.5 [106 Kg / m2s]) (Bowen et al., 2004).
This large impedance difference leads to poor acoustic matching and low axial resolution.
This problem is generally overcome reducing the ceramic density. It has been shown
(Levassort et al., 2007) that the introduction of 40% vol of isotropic porosity into a
piezoceramic leads to a reduction of 60% the acoustic impedance thus dramatically
increasing the device efficiency.