Ferroelectrics, 304: 213–215, 2004 Copyright C  Taylor & Francis Inc. ISSN: 0015-0193 print / 1563-5112 online DOI: 10.1080/00150190490456808 Simulation of Piezoelectric Multilayer Probes Under High-Voltage Pulse Excitation in Medical and Industrial Applications A. RAMOS Instituto de Ac ´ ustica, CSIC Serrano 144, 28006 Madrid, Spain A. RUIZ Instituto de Ac ´ ustica, CSIC Serrano 144, 28006 Madrid, Spain and Dpto. Ultras ´ onica ICIMAF c/ 15 no 551, 10400 Havana, Cuba J. L. SAN EMETERIO P. T. SANZ Instituto de Ac ´ ustica, CSIC Serrano 144, 28006 Madrid, Spain Received August 8, 2003; in final form January 5, 2004 Piezoelectric probes in medical and industrial applications use to have a multilayer structure in order to produce short duration ultrasonic pulses. This duration is also dependent on electrical excitation. The associated electronics presents some non-linear behaviours which are not considered in conventional simulation approaches. In this pa- per a PSpice global model, including piezoelectric aspects and non-linear high-voltage electronics, is presented and applied to analyse a piezoelectric process in transient regime. Parameter setting in excitation energy for the driving and transient piezoelec- tric response is analysed, by computer simulation and parametric analysis. Keywords Piezoelectric probes; high-voltage excitation; transient responses; simulation AIP classification codes: 43.38.Fx; 43.35.Zc; 43.60.Lq; 84.30.-r Introduction In ultrasonic imaging & detection systems (Fig. 1a) for diagnosis in medicine and industrial areas, good efficiency and large bandwidth are required for the piezoelectric responses, in order to obtain compact and intense ultrasonic pulses. Broadband piezoelectric probes having an internal multilayer structure, with back and front mechanical layers, are used. The global performance is dependent on piezoelectric parameters and frequency content of the electrical excitations, which are brief impulses (spikes) generated from high-voltage Address correspondence to A. Ramos, Instituto de Ac´ ustica, CSIC, Serrano 144, 28006 Madrid, Spain. E-mail: aramos@ia.cetef.csic.es [1043]/213