It's hard to imagine modern technology without ultrasound - whether in medicine, materials testing or industrial production. For ultrasonic devices to work reliably, their transducers must be precisely characterised. Until now, however, it has been difficult to record the electrical and acoustic properties of a transducer separately - especially at very high frequencies.

We at MSE-Lab have now developed the first method to transfer the so-called S-parameter measurement from high-frequency technology to ultrasonic transducers. The special feature: The electrical and acoustic components of a transducer can be recorded simultaneously with just one measurement - and independently of the rest of the measuring system. This makes measurements not only more accurate, but also more comparable.

The new technology enables characterisations up to the gigahertz range, opening up new possibilities for applications such as high-resolution material analysis or scanning acoustic microscopy. "We are thus building a bridge between two previously separate worlds - high-frequency technology and ultrasound technology," explains Emanuel Leipner, first author of the publication.

The results were published in the journal Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing (MSSP) and could become a standard tool in the development and quality control of high-frequency ultrasonic transducers in the future.