Pre-existing cracks, introduced by a Vickers diamond hardness indenter in BM500 (Navy Type II) PZT, exhibit visible
growth and thickening when subjected to low frequency electric fields with amplitudes above a threshold on the order of
1.66 Ec. Thickening, but no growth, of cracks is also observed after cycles of a field of 1.64 Ec. The threshold field is
related to the ferroelectric, piezoelectric and elastic properties of the ceramic. At fields above the threshold, cracks grow
to a limiting size after a relatively low number of cycles, and then increase in width, as opposed to length, when further
electric cycles are applied. The maximum size to which field-induced cracks grow is of the order of the separation of the
electrodes. Changes observed in the resonance peaks of impedance spectra may be used as a basis for non-destructive
identification of defects in piezoelectrics.
An inchworm actuator is described which uses complementary configurations for the two clamping sections. In one configuration clamping and release are achieved using high and low voltage respectively while for the other clamping and release are achieved using low and high voltage respectively. The resulting inchworm actuator can be driven by a two-channel controller with the two clamps sharing the first channel and the extender piezoelectric actuator using the second channel. In the coarse positioning mode the direction of motion is determined by whether the extender voltage pulse overlaps the leading or trailing edge of the common clamp pulse. A fine positioning mode can be realized with the common clamp voltage set to 0V and continuous feedback control applied to the extender actuator. The paper also describes a diode-shunted delay circuit that causes unclamping to occur more slowly than clamping. It is shown that by using the delay circuit in series with each clamp, the overall force drive capability of the actuator is increased. The paper presents simulated and experimental results of clamp surface displacement and force vs. time during the switching transient.
Pre-existing cracks introduced by a Vickers diamond hardness indenter in PMN-0.3PT, which displays piezoelectric properties, increase in length under the action of low frequency cyclic electric fields applied normal to the crack. A minimum applied field of 1.1 x Ec is required to cause crack growth. In applied fields of 1.85-5.70 x Ec cracks grow to a common limiting length which is approximately 0.8 times the separation between the electrodes. New cracks are not generated at the corners of a Vickers diamond indent by applied fields up to 5.70 x Ec.
A large area, flat panel solid state detector is being investigated for both digital radiography and fluoroscopy. The detector employs amorphous selenium (a-Se) to detect x- rays. The charge image formed on the surface of the a-Se is read out in situ using an active matrix array. A theoretical analysis of the spatial frequency dependent detective quantum efficiency (DQE) is performed. Because of the very high intrinsic resolution of a-Se, the detector is inherently undersampled and aliasing is always present. An interpretation of DQE(f) for the undersampled a-Se detector will be given. The analysis shows that the main factors, besides the quantum efficiency of the a-Se layer, affecting DQE(f) are: (1) aliasing; (2) gain fluctuation noise of a- Se, i.e., the Swank factor of a-Se; (3) electronic noise which prevents quantum noise limited operation at low exposure levels such as those used in fluoroscopy and (4) temporal response which causes a reduction in noise by averaging. The validity of the theoretical model was confirmed experimentally using our prototype detector with the Swank factor being established using pulse height spectroscopy. The model was then applied to three important x-ray imaging applications: mammography, chest radiography and fluoroscopy. The results show that the most important strategy for maximizing DQE(f) is to increase the pixel fill factor which can be unity using specialized techniques Methods for reducing aliasing in the detector will be described.
Our goal is to develop a large area, flat panel, solid-state detector for both digital radiography and fluoroscopy. The proposed detector employs a photoconductive layer of amorphous selenium (a-Se) to convert x rays into charge. The charge image formed on the a-Se is electronically read out in situ using a two dimensional array of thin film transistors (TFTs), or 'active matrix.' Since the active matrix readout is capable of producing x-ray images in real- time, it can potentially be applied in both radiography and fluoroscopy. Investigation of the practical feasibility of this concept with a prototype x-ray imaging detector is described. Measurement of x-ray imaging properties, e.g. modulation transfer function (MTF) and x-ray sensitivity of the prototype are investigated, and the results compared with our earlier theoretical analysis.
We are developing a large area, flat panel solid-state detector for general application to digital radiology. The proposed detector employs a continuous photoconductive layer of amorphous selenium ((alpha) -Se) to convert incident x rays to electron-hole pairs, which are then separated and drawn to the surface of the (alpha) -Se by an applied electric field. The resulting charge image is digitally read out in situ using a large area active matrix array made with cadmium selenide (CdSe) thin film transistors (TFTs). The relationship between the potential imaging properties and the design parameters of this detector concept for digital mammography were analyzed theoretically using measured characteristics of (alpha) -Se layers and CdSe active matrices.
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