Focusing Airborne Ultrasound with Partially Occluded Emission from Rectangular Plate with Flexural Vibration Mode

Abstract: We propose a focusing method of intense midair ultrasound out of ultrasonic emission from a single flexurally vibrating square plate partially covered with a purposely designed amplitude mask. Many applications relying on nonlinear acoustic effects, such as radiation force employed in acoustic levitation, have been devised. For those applications, focused intense airborne ultrasound is conventionally formed using phased arrays of transducers or sound sources with specific fabricated shapes. However, the former strategies are considerably costly, and the latter may require minute three-dimensional fabrication processes, which both hinder their utility, especially for the construction of a large ultrasound emitting aperture. Our method offers a possible solution for this, where the amplitude masks are designed in a fashion similar to the Freznel-zone-plate designing, but according to the positions of nodes and antinodes of the vibrating plate that are measured beforehand. We experimentally demonstrate the successful formation of midair ultrasound focus at a desired position. Our method only requires a monolithic plate, a driving transducer under the plate, and an amplitude mask fabricated out of laser machining processes of an acrylic plate. Magnification of the spatial scale of ultrasound apertures based on our method is much more readily and affordably achieved than conventional methods, which will lead to new midair ultrasound applications with the whole room workspace.