AbstractAn ultrasonic surgical tool for tissue incision and dissection has been designed and characterized. The surgical tool is based on a simple geometry to which PMN-PT d31 plates are bonded directly. The performance of the surgical tool has been defined numerically with the Abaqus finite element analysis (FEA) package and practically with laser vibrometer and impedance spectroscopy. The results show the ability of FEA to accurately predict the behaviors of an ultrasonic device as numerical and practical analysis were found to be in a good agreement. The design of the tool presented has the ability to generate displacement amplitude high enough to carry out soft tissue incision with relatively low driving voltage.