Adjustable acoustic pattern controlled by "Acoustic mirrors"

The controlled coupling of acoustic field is widely used in medical treatment, neuromodulation, particle manipulation, and biological imaging. Nowadays, phased arrays and acoustic lenses of design structures are two ways of controlling the ultrasound field. However, the disadvantages of the two methods are that phased arrays are complex in structure by adjusting parameters of each array element and acoustic lenses have limited flexibility when the design is complete. We designed report a new way for acoustic pattern control by using adjustable "Acoustic mirror". The principle is that two symmetric mirrors change the propagation of the sound generated by piezoelectric material and achieve interference enhancement in the target area. The 2D "Acoustic mirror" model is implemented in COMSOL and actual model build by 3D printed technology verify the simulation result. The acoustic intensity generated by piezoelectric material at various lateral and longitudinal locations along the focus can be precisely controlled by two adjustable mirrors. The focal depth varies from 39mm to 140mm while the angel of the mirror changes from 30° to 40°. Moreover, the focal position can be adjusted in a fan area with a center angle of 60°.The "Acoustic mirror" shows good control of sound field of ultrasonic transducer, which is simple and flexible. It suggests a new method for ultrasonic field control which may have broad application in the future.