Study on the Mechanism of Ultrasonic Power Measurement Sensor based on Pyroelectric Effect

Abstract

PVDF pyroelectric sensor has been widely applied in many fields, such as intruder alarm. Nowadays, this sensor shows a potential for ultrasonic power measurement. However, the transformation mechanism between the acoustic and pyroelectric signals has not been particularly studied until now. In this paper, a physical model was introduced for theoretical study of the mechanism of energy transformations. In addition, a simulation program based on finite-element analysis method was built up for analyzing the ultrasound propagation characteristics and the temperature rise on the PVDF, as well it predicted the waveform and amplitude of the generated pyroelectric signal. Besides that, a PVDF pyroelectric sensor was fabricated and used for acoustic power measurement experiment. Finally, the experiment and simulation results were compared, confirming that the physical model is suitable for pyroelectric sensor characteristics analysis. It can also provide useful suggestions for the design and fabrication of PVDF pyroelectric sensors with high sensitivity.