A study of circular piezoelectric micro speakers is presented for applications in the audio frequency range, including values for impedance, admittance, noise figures, transducer gain, and acoustic frequency responses. The micro speakers were modelled based on piezoelectric micro ultrasonic transducer (pMUT) design techniques and principles. In order to reach the audio frequency range, transducer radii were increased to the order of one centimetre, whilst piezoelectric layer thicknesses ranged the order of several μm. The micro actuators presented might be used for a variety of electroacoustic applications including noise control, hearing aids, earphones, sonar, and medical diagnostic ultrasound. This work main contribution is the characterization of the design space and transducer performance as a function of transducer radius, piezoelectric layer thickness, and frequency range, looking towards an optimized fabrication process.

This work has been partially supported by the E.S.A. project COSMIC VISION. J.M.L. Author thanks partial funding by the postdoctoral program JAE-DOC granted by the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas C.S.I.C.).

Presented at ICECS WASET 2011, Bali (Indonesia) y publicado como paper en: "World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology (58): 145-151 (2011)".-- This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.

Peer reviewed