Binary Volume Acoustic Holograms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the design and fabrication of acoustic volume holograms using multi-polymer 3D printing, enabling multiplexed ultrasonic wave-front shaping for various incident fields, validated through experimental field scans.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for designing and fabricating acoustic volume holograms with multi-polymer 3D printing, expanding ultrasonic wave control capabilities.

Findings

Successful fabrication of acoustic volume holograms using multi-polymer 3D printing

Demonstration of multiplexed ultrasonic field generation from different incident directions

Validation through experimental field scans showing diffraction of target fields

Abstract

In recent years high-resolution 3D printing has enabled a diverse range of new, low-cost, methods for ultrasonic wave-front shaping. Acoustic holograms, particularly, allow for the generation of arbitrary, diffraction limited, acoustic fields at MHz frequencies from single element transducers. These are phase plates that function as direct acoustic analogues to thin optical holograms. In this work it is shown that, by using multiple polymer 3D printing, acoustic analogues to 'thick' or volume optical holograms can also be generated. First, an analytic approach for designing a volume hologram that diffracts a set of input fields onto a desired set of output fields is briefly summarised. Next, a greedy optimisation approach based on random downhill binary search able to account for the constraints imposed by the chosen fabrication method is introduced. Finally, an experimental test-case designed to diffract the field generated by a 2.54 cm, planar, PZT transducer onto 8 distinct patterns dependent on the direction of the incident field is used to validate the approach and the design method. Field scans of the 8 target fields demonstrate that acoustic analogues of optical volume holograms can be generated using multi-polymer printing and that these allow the multiplexing of distinct fields onto different incident field directions.