There are two types of ultrasonic transducers: piezoelectric and magnetostrictive.
My question is:
Can the same power supply(generator) used for piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers be used for magnetostrictive ultrasonic transducers without loosing performance?
Hello Ju Cheng ,
The short answer is no. Piezoelectric transducers respond to applied electric field and so are voltage mode devices, whereas magnetostrictive transducers require the appplication of an external magnetic field and so they are current mode devices, where the current is used to create the magnetic field via a coil.
A piezoelectric transducer is basically a capacitor, i.e., the piezoelectric dielectric is sandwiched between two metal plates forming the capacitor, or a set of parallel capacitors if you use a piezoelectric stack. A magnetostrictive transducer is basically a solenoid with the magnetostrictive material acting as the core, i.e., the core is surrounded by many turns of insulated copper wire.
Regards,
Tom Cuff
Hello Ju Cheng ,
Perhaps the most direct way to drive the coil surrounding the magnetostrictive material would be to use a high power audio amplifier such as those used to driver moving coil speakers in a sound system used to fill a stadium. The input to the power amplifier could be a variable frequency sinewave generator.
I also found an interesting European patent that touches on your question, see attached document.
Regards,
Tom Cuff
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