Estimation of Acoustic Power Output from Electrical Impedance Measurements

A method is proposed for estimating the acoustic power output of ultrasound transducers using a two-port model with electrical impedance measurements made in three different propagation media. When evaluated for two high-intensity focused ultrasound transducers at centre frequencies between 0.50 and 3.19 MHz, the resulting power estimates exceeded acoustic estimates by 4.5–21.8%. The method was shown to be valid for drive levels producing up to 20 MPa in water and should therefore be appropriate for many HIFU (high-intensity focused ultrasound) applications, with the primary advantage of employing relatively low-cost, non-specialist materials and instrumentation.