The present disclosure relates to the technical field of ultrasonic transduction, in particular to an ultrasonic transducer, a fabrication method thereof and an electronic device.
Main functions of an ultrasonic transducer are that in an emitting stage, the transducer converts input electric energy into mechanical energy under an action of an excitation signal to transmit it out so as to implement emission of ultrasonic waves; and in a receiving stage, the transducer converts a sound wave into an electrical signal so as to implement receiving of the ultrasonic waves.
A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) is an ultrasonic transducer which has developed most fast in recent years and has the advantages of being simple in structure, small in size, flexible in design, high in sensitivity and the like.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an ultrasonic transducer, a fabrication method thereof and an electronic device. A specific solution is as follows.
An ultrasonic transducer provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: an array substrate, having a groove, a bottom electrode and an insulation layer, wherein an orthographic projection of the groove on the array substrate is located within a range of an orthographic projection of the bottom electrode on the array substrate, and the insulation layer covers the bottom electrode; and an opposite substrate, wherein the opposite substrate and the array substrate are oppositely arranged and are attached to each other, the opposite substrate and the array substrate form a cavity in the groove, the opposite substrate has a top electrode and a vibrating diaphragm layer which are arranged in stack, and an orthographic projection of the top electrode on the array substrate is located within the range of the orthographic projection of the bottom electrode on the array substrate.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the top electrode is located on a side of the vibrating diaphragm layer back on to the array substrate, or the top electrode is located on a side of the vibrating diaphragm layer facing the array substrate.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, a material of the vibrating diaphragm layer is glass, PI or PET.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the array substrate further includes a base substrate, the base substrate has the groove. the bottom electrode is located at a bottom of the groove, the insulation layer is located on a side of the bottom electrode facing the opposite substrate, and a depth of the groove is greater than a sum of thicknesses of the bottom electrode and the insulation layer.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, a material of the base substrate is glass.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the material of the vibrating diaphragm layer is PI or PET, and the vibrating diaphragm layer and the base substrate are fixedly attached through a first adhesive layer.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the material of the vibrating diaphragm layer is glass, the vibrating diaphragm layer and the base substrate are fixedly attached through a first adhesive layer, or the vibrating diaphragm layer and the base substrate are fixedly attached through a bonding technology.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the array substrate further includes: a base substrate, the bottom electrode located on the base substrate, the insulation layer located on a side of the bottom electrode facing away from the base substrate, and a retaining wall structure located on a side of the insulation layer facing away from the base substrate, wherein the retaining wall structure has the groove, and the groove penetrates through the retaining wall structure in a thickness direction of the retaining wall structure.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, a material of the base substrate is glass, and a material of the retaining wall structure includes one of glass, sealant, hydrogel or resin.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, a material of the vibrating diaphragm layer is glass, the material of the retaining wall structure is glass, the vibrating diaphragm layer and the retaining wall structure are fixedly attached through a first adhesive layer, or the vibrating diaphragm layer and the retaining wall structure are fixedly attached through a bonding technology.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, a material of the vibrating diaphragm layer is PI or PET, the material of the retaining wall structure is glass, sealant, hydrogel or resin, and the vibrating diaphragm layer and the retaining wall structure are fixedly attached through a first adhesive layer.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, a size of the top electrode is smaller than or equal to a size of the bottom electrode.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the size of the top electrode is 0.5-1 time the size of the bottom electrode.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, a shape of the groove includes circle, square and polygon.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the array substrate includes a device region and a surrounding region arranged surrounding the device region, a plurality of grooves are distributed in an array, the plurality of grooves are located in the device region, the bottom electrodes are in one-to-one correspondence with the grooves, and the top electrodes are in one-to-one correspondence with the bottom electrodes, any two adjacent top electrodes are mutually electrically connected; and the plurality of bottom electrodes are divided into a plurality of regions, any two adjacent bottom electrodes in the same region are mutually electrically connected, and any two adjacent bottom electrodes in the different regions are mutually insulated.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, all the bottom electrodes in the same column are mutually electrically connected, and the bottom electrodes in different columns are mutually independent; or, the plurality of bottom electrodes are divided into a plurality of blocky regions, all the bottom electrodes located in the same blocky region are mutually electrically connected, and the bottom electrodes located in the different blocky regions are mutually independent; or, the plurality of bottom electrodes are divided into a middle region and a peripheral region surrounding the middle region, all the bottom electrodes in the middle region are mutually electrically connected, all the bottom electrodes in the peripheral region are mutually electrically connected, and the bottom electrodes in the middle region are independent of the bottom electrodes in the peripheral region.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the array substrate further includes first leads electrically connected with the bottom electrodes; the first leads are led out from side walls of the grooves and extend to a first binding region of the surrounding region; or, in positions of the base substrate corresponding to the bottom electrodes, the base substrate has via holes penetrating through the base substrate in a thickness direction of the base substrate, and the first leads are led out from the via holes and extend to the first binding region.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the array substrate further includes: a first connecting electrode located in the surrounding region and arranged on the same layer as the bottom electrodes, and a second lead electrically connected with the first connecting electrode; and the opposite substrate further includes a second connecting electrode located in the surrounding region, arranged on the same layer as the top electrodes and electrically connected with the top electrodes, the top electrodes are electrically connected with the first connecting electrode through the second connecting electrode, and the second lead is led out and extends to the first binding region.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by some embodiments of the present disclosure, the opposite substrate includes a third lead electrically connected with the top electrodes, and the third lead extends to a second binding region of the opposite substrate; the first binding region and the second binding region are located on opposite sides of the device region; or, the first binding region and the second binding region are located on the same side of the device region, and an orthographic projection of the second binding region is located between an orthographic projection of the device region and an orthographic projection of the first binding region.
Correspondingly, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides an electronic device, including: any above ultrasonic transducer provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure.
Correspondingly, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a fabrication method of an ultrasonic transducer, including: fabricating an array substrate, wherein the array substrate has a groove, a bottom electrode and an insulation layer, an orthographic projection of the groove on the array substrate is located within a range of an orthographic projection of the bottom electrode on the array substrate, and the insulation layer covers the bottom electrode; fabricating an opposite substrate, wherein the opposite substrate has a top electrode and a vibrating diaphragm layer which are arranged in stack; and attaching the array substrate to the opposite substrate, wherein an orthographic projection of the top electrode on the array substrate is located within a range of an orthographic projection of the bottom electrode on a base substrate, and the opposite substrate and the array substrate form a cavity in the groove.
In the above fabrication method provided by embodiment of the present disclosure, the fabricating an array substrate specifically includes: providing and etching a base substrate to form the groove; forming the bottom electrode at a bottom of the groove; and forming the insulation layer on a side of the bottom electrode facing away from the bottom of the groove.
In the above fabrication method provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, the fabricating an array substrate specifically includes: providing a base substrate; forming the bottom electrode on the base substrate; forming the insulation layer on a side of the bottom electrode facing away from the base substrate; and forming a retaining wall structure on a side of the insulation layer facing away from the base substrate, wherein the retaining wall structure has the groove which penetrates through the retaining wall structure in a thickness direction of the retaining wall structure.
In the above fabrication method provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, the fabricating an opposite substrate specifically includes: providing a glass substrate; forming the vibrating diaphragm layer on the glass substrate, wherein a material of the vibrating diaphragm layer is PI or PET; forming the top electrode on the vibrating diaphragm layer; and stripping off the glass substrate before attaching the array substrate to the opposite substrate, or stripping off the glass substrate after attaching the array substrate to the opposite substrate.
provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure.
provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure.
In order to make objectives, technical solutions and advantages of embodiments of the present disclosure clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and fully described below with reference to the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Apparently, the described embodiments are only some, but not all of the embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiments in the present disclosure and features in the embodiments may be mutually combined without conflicts. Based on the described embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those ordinarily skilled in the art without creative work fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.
Unless otherwise defined, technical or scientific terms used by the present disclosure should be understood commonly by those ordinarily skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains. “Include” or “contain” or similar words used in the present disclosure mean that a component or an item preceding the word covers components or items and their equivalents listed after the word without excluding other components or items. “Connection”, “connected” and similar words may include electrical connection, direct or indirect, instead of being limited to physical or mechanical connection. “Inner”, “outer”, “upper”, “lower” and the like are only used for denoting a relative position relation, and when an absolute position of a described object changes, the relative position relation may also change correspondingly.
It needs to be noted that sizes and shapes of all figures in the accompanying drawings do not reflect a true scale and are only intended to illustrate contents of the present disclosure.
The same or similar reference numbers denote the same or similar components or components with the same or similar functions all the time.
In the related art, a fabrication method of a glass-based CMUT usually adopts a sacrificial layer solution, a technological process is complicated, time of etching a sacrificial layer to form a cavity is long, and incomplete etching and residues are prone to occurring. Especially, specific to application of the CMUT to low frequency ultrasound such as directional sound, large-size array elements and thick films are needed to reduce a frequency, but a thickness is limited by a traditional solution for depositing each film layer of the CMUT, and a vibrating diaphragm is prone to collapsing.
In view of this, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides an ultrasonic transducer, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as the array substrate and the opposite substrate which are oppositely arranged and are attached to each other are included, the array substrate and the opposite substrate may be fabricated respectively, then the array substrate and the opposite substrate are aligned and attached, and thus the CMUT of the embodiment of the present disclosure is formed. Compared with a sacrificial layer solution for fabricating the CMUT in the related art, the embodiment of the present disclosure provides a solution for fabricating the CMUT by separate fabrication and then attachment, which can meet design demands of applications of ultrasonic transducers in different frequency bands. Besides, the array substrate and the opposite substrate are fabricated respectively in the present disclosure, and a thickness of the vibrating diaphragm layer and a radius size of the cavity are conveniently adjusted, so as to meet different application demands. Besides, a process for fabricating the CMUT provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure is simple and high in productivity, meanwhile guarantees performance of the CMUT, and can greatly shorten time of forming the cavity of the CMUT, so as to improve preparation efficiency of the CMUT.
Optionally, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
It needs to be noted that the embodiment of the present disclosure takes the material of the base substrate 14 being glass as an example.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
Optionally, when the vibrating diaphragm layer of the glass material and the base substrate of the glass material are attached, a glass bonding solution may be adopted, after fabrication of the base substrate, the groove, the bottom electrode and the insulation layer of the array substrate is completed, the vibrating diaphragm layer of the glass material and the base substrate of the glass material are subjected to low-temperature bonding so as to implement a physical connection, and an airtight cavity is formed, for example, glass may be molten and bonded at a temperature of about 400° C.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
Optionally, when the vibrating diaphragm layer of the glass material and the retaining wall structure of the glass material are attached, a glass bonding solution may be adopted, after fabrication of the base substrate, the bottom electrode, the insulation layer, the retaining wall structure and the groove of the array substrate is completed, the vibrating diaphragm layer of the glass material and the retaining wall structure of the glass material are subjected to low-temperature bonding so as to implement a physical connection, and an airtight cavity is formed, for example, glass may be molten and bonded at a temperature of about 400° C.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
Optionally, the above first adhesive layer 4 may be an adhesive or other glue layer materials.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, a thickness of the vibrating diaphragm layer of the glass material is 20 μm to 200 μm, a radius of the vibrating diaphragm layer is 1000 μm to 4000 μm, and a height of the cavity is 0.5 μm to 10 μm. Optionally, the vibrating diaphragm layer of the glass material may be UTG (Ultra-Thin) glass with a thickness being 30 μm to 100 μm, and may also be a vibrating diaphragm layer formed by gluing a piece of glass with a thickness being 500 μm or 700 μm and thinning the glass to a target thickness, and a target thickness of the vibrating diaphragm layer may be 20 μm to 200 μm. Certainly, each numerical value may be adjusted with reference to a process capability during actual fabrication.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, the thickness of the vibrating diaphragm layer of the PI or PET material is 5 μm to 20 μm, the radius of the vibrating diaphragm layer is 500 μm to 2000 μm, and the height of the cavity is 20 μm to 80 μm. Certainly, each numerical value may be adjusted with reference to the process capability during actual fabrication.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
During specific implementation, the materials of the bottom electrode and the top electrode may be but are not limited to Mo, Al, TiAlTi, MoAlMo and other materials. the thicknesses of the bottom electrode and the top electrode may be 0.1 μm to 0.6 μm. and some embodiments of the present disclosure takes 0.2 μm as an example. The material of the insulation layer may be but is not limited to a SiNx material, the thickness of the insulation layer may be 0.1 μm to 1.0 μm, and some embodiments of the present disclosure takes 0.2 μm as an example.
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
Any two adjacent top electrodes 21 are mutually electrically connected.
The plurality of bottom electrodes 12 are divided into a plurality of regions (for example, one column is a region), any two adjacent bottom electrodes 12 in the same region are mutually electrically connected, and any two adjacent bottom electrodes 12 in different regions (for example, different columns) are mutually insulated. In this way, partition drive of the CMUT provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure may be implemented.
During specific implementation, in the above ultrasonic transducer provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
During specific implementation, as shown in
In the above ultrasonic transducer provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
By adopting the above CMUT provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, directional sound production may be implemented through a parametric acoustic array technology. Regional sound production and sound production in different directions may be implemented by locally controlling array elements.
A CMUT acoustic sensor array emits directional audible sound demodulated by directional ultrasonic waves, that is, the audible sound is modulated onto an ultrasonic carrier to be emitted to the air, and highly directional audible sound is demodulated.
The parametric acoustic array technology is to make an audio signal be loaded to an ultrasonic wave after being subjected to signal processing and be emitted to the air through an ultrasonic sensor, two columns of ultrasonic waves of different frequencies have a nonlinear interaction in the air, and the audible sound (a beat frequency wave) is demodulated.
As shown in
Based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a fabrication method of an ultrasonic transducer, as shown in
Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide the fabrication method of the above ultrasonic transducer, the array substrate and the opposite substrate are fabricated respectively, and then the array substrate and the opposite substrate are aligned and attached, so that the CMUT of the embodiment of the present disclosure is formed. Compared with a sacrificial layer solution for fabricating the CMUT in the related art, the embodiment of the present disclosure provides a solution for fabricating the CMUT by separate fabrication and then attachment, which can meet design demands of applications of ultrasonic transducers in different frequency bands. Besides, the array substrate and the opposite substrate are fabricated respectively in the present disclosure, and a thickness of a vibrating diaphragm and a radius size of the cavity are conveniently adjusted, so as to meet different application demands. Besides, a process for fabricating the CMUT provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure is simple and high in productivity, meanwhile guarantees performance of the CMUT, and can greatly shorten time of forming the cavity of the CMUT, so as to improve preparation efficiency of the CMUT.
During specific implementation, in the above fabrication method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, the fabricating an array substrate of a structure shown in
It needs to be noted that fabricating a structure shown in
In the above fabrication method provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, the fabricating an array substrate of a structure shown in
In the above fabrication method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, when a material of the vibrating diaphragm layer is PI or PET, taking a structure shown in
Optionally, taking the structure shown in
Optionally, taking the structure shown in
Optionally, the above fabrication process in
Optionally, the above fabrication process in
Optionally, alignment and attachment in the above fabrication process in
Optionally, in the above fabrication process in
Optionally, when the structure shown in
Optionally, when the structure shown in
It needs to be noted that the fabrication method and the alignment and attachment method shown in
It needs to be noted that when the CMUT provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure is fabricated, according to a binding mode of the top electrode and the bottom electrode, a corresponding connection electrode and a corresponding lead are fabricated on the corresponding film layers, so as to transmit signals in corresponding binding regions to the bottom electrode and the top electrode.
To sum up, the embodiment of the present disclosure provides the solution for fabricating the CMUT by separate fabrication and then attachment, and the thickness of the vibrating diaphragm and the radius size of the cavity are conveniently adjusted, so as to meet different application demands. The fabrication process is simple and high in productivity, meanwhile guarantees the performance of the CMUT, and can greatly shorten time of forming the cavity of the CMUT, so as to improve the preparation efficiency of the CMUT.
Based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides an electronic device, including the above ultrasonic transducer provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure. As a principle of solving problems of the electronic device is similar to that of the above ultrasonic transducer, implementation of the electronic device may refer to implementation of the above ultrasonic transducer, and repetitions are omitted. The electronic device may be: a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a television, a display, a notebook computer, a digital photo frame, a navigator and any product or component with a display or touch function.
During specific implementation, the above electronic device provided by embodiments of the present disclosure may further include other function structures well known to those skilled in the art, which is not detailed here.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide the ultrasonic transducer, the fabrication method thereof and the electronic device, the ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) includes the array substrate and the opposite substrate which are oppositely arranged and are attached to each other, so the array substrate and the opposite substrate may be fabricated respectively, and then the array substrate and the opposite substrate are aligned and attached, so as to form the CMUT of the embodiment of the present disclosure. Compared with the sacrificial layer solution for fabricating the CMUT in the related art, the embodiment of the present disclosure provides the solution for fabricating the CMUT by separate fabrication and then attachment, which can meet design demands of applications of ultrasonic transducers in different frequency bands. Besides, the array substrate and the opposite substrate are fabricated respectively in the present disclosure, and the thickness of the vibrating diaphragm and the radius size of the cavity are conveniently adjusted, so as to meet different application demands. Besides, the process for fabricating the CMUT provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure is simple and high in productivity, meanwhile guarantees the performance of the CMUT, and can greatly shorten time of forming the cavity of the CMUT, so as to improve the preparation efficiency of the CMUT.
Though the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been already described, those skilled in the art can make extra changes and modifications to these embodiments once they known a basic inventive concept. Therefore, the appended claims are intended to be constructed as including the preferred embodiments and all changes and modifications falling within the scope of the present disclosure.
Apparently, those skilled in the art can make various changes and variations to the embodiments of the present disclosure without departing from the spirit and the scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure. In this case, if these modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present disclosure fall within the scope of the claims of the present disclosure and their equivalents, the present disclosure also intends to contain these modifications and variations.
This application is a National Stage of International Application No. PCT/CN2022/095709, filed May 27, 2022, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/CN2022/095709 | 5/27/2022 | WO |