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Pulse Shapes Driving Ultrasonic Probes

Ed Ginzel1, Giovanni Cascante1

1
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
e-mail: eginzel@mri.on.ca

2022.11.15
More info about this article: http://www.ndt.net/?id=27562

Abstract
Ultrasonic probe construction is the main factor in the signal characteristics that the probe can provide; however,
output from an ultrasonic probe can also be dependent on the characteristics of the pulse voltage driving the probe.
Until recently, only spike and negative half-cycle square wave voltages were generally available as pulse shapes
on commercial ultrasonic instruments. Other pulse shapes are of course possible; however, the effectiveness of
different shapes does not seem to have been well documented for ultrasonic practitioners. This paper looks at some
of the output characteristics from a probe driven using different pulse shapes. It concludes that some of the
traditional formats may not be as energetic as some of the options.

Keywords: ultrasonic, pulsers, voltage, bi-polar, square-wave, spike, tone-burst

1. Introduction
Early ultrasonic instruments, using pulsed excitation, relied on a negative voltage spike. The
negative spike was facilitated by a condenser charged to a hundred volts or more [1]. The
trigger signal was generated by closing an electronic switch which discharged the condenser.
Originally, thyratrons were used for the rapid switching, but more recently thyristors have been
employed for these spike pulses.

For several years now, square-wave pulsers have become popular because it is possible to tune
the pulse to the natural frequency of the probe, or to tune it off the natural frequency of the
probe to impart damping effects on the pulse that can help improve inspection results by
improving penetration or decreasing ring time or altering the frequency content of the pulse to
improve temporal resolution. Effects of tuning a square wave pulse were illustrated in a paper
and video [2, 3] using a pulser-receiver from Adaptronics (PCPR100) that allowed adjustment
of the square wave pulse. The Adaptronics pulser provided option to use uni-polar or bi-polar
square wave (i.e. half-cycle or full cycle) and up to 8 cycles (tone-burst). Only recently has the
option to use full cycle square waves as the excitation method been offered in some phased-
array instruments.

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Other pulse shapes can be made, but these do not seem to have been made available in ultrasonic
instruments. Tallavo [4] described application of several shapes of pulse to ultrasonic probes
and discussed the energy involved in several pulse shapes including;
• Half-cycle square wave
• Full cycle square wave
• Full cycle sine wave
• Triangle wave
• Sawtooth
• Linear exponential (spike)
Tallavo calculated that the full cycle square wave generated the maximum electrical energy and
demonstrated the effects on a 50 kHz probe using a piezoelectric accelerometer affixed to the
face of the transducer. Note that, as is typical of probes in the low kHz range, Tallavo’s probe
was made using a stack of 3 piezo-elements.

To avoid loading effects of an accelerometer, a similar test configuration was used with a
matched pair of 5 MHz immersion probes to assess output amplitude and frequency content
with varying pulse shapes. Typical of the probes used for NDT on metals, these probes are
monolithic piezo-elements (as opposed to the stacked elements used by Tallavo).

2. Equipment
Equipment used in this project included;

• Pulser-Receiver PicoScope 5443D & Arbitrary Waveform Generator

• Instrument control software PicoScope 6
• Transmitter probe 5 MHz 3mm diameter UTX IX-870
• Receiver probe 5 MHz 3mm diameter UTX IX-870

Note; the Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG) in the PicoScope 5443D has a rise time of
less than 10 ns. A faster rise time could have a bearing on the characteristics imparted to a
5MHz probe, however, this rise time was considered adequate for the demonstration purposes
of this investigation.
The ultrasonic probes were a matched pair of immersion probes used for material acoustic
characterisation. These were held in a custom-built holder that fixed the probes at 30mm
separation. The gap between the probes was filled with water to allow a transmitted pulse to
be monitored. See Figure 1.

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 Figure 1. Probes in holder

3. Test Settings
The PicoScope 5443D was configured to have the AWG output sent to one channel of the digital
scope whilst also connecting the AWG output to the transmitter probe. This allowed for the
monitoring of the transmitted signal. The receiver probe was then connected to another channel
on the digital scope to monitor the received signal. A schematic of the equipment layout is seen
in Figure 2.

Figure 2 PicoScope and probes

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Using the PicoScope 6 software in conjunction with the AWG, pulse shapes can be constructed
using Microsoft Excel and saved in csv (comma separated value) format files. CSV files are
then imported and the sampling parameters entered to adjust pulse-durations.

The basic shapes of pulses can be displayed on the AWG software module and are illustrated
in Figure 3. The half-cycle square wave is added to the list as it has been a popular option in
many ultrasonic instruments.

Spike Square wave

Sine wave Triangle wave

Half-cycle
Square wave Saw wave

Figure3 Pulse shapes from imported CSV files

In addition to the basic shapes, the square, sine, triangle and saw wave forms were also
constructed with 2 and 3 cycles. Examples for the 2 and 3 cycle Triangle wave are seen in
Figure 4.

Triangle wave 2 cycle Triangle wave 3 cycle

Figure4 Triangle wave 2 cycle and Triangle wave 3 cycle

Adjustments were then made to the signal generator frequency to establish the pulse duration.
This allowed tuning of the pulse to the probe natural frequency. For example, when using a

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square wave excitation, the half-cycle should be half the period of the natural frequency of the
probe. For a 5MHz probe the period is 1/(5x106) or 200ns. Half this value is 100ns.

Adjusting the frequency of the pulse to a half cycle for the single cycle square wave did in fact
provide the maximum amplitude response on the receiver used to monitor the transmitter
output. PicoScope software also permits the determination of the centre frequency of the signal.
Both the pulser signal and the received signal are seen in Figure 5. When processed in the
frequency domain the received signal frequency content can be determined and is also displayed
in Figure 5.

Pulser half-cycle 101.5ns

Pulser amplitude set to 4Vpp Receiver amplitude 30.95mV

FFT 4.9MHz

Pulser signal Receiver signal

Figure5 Single cycle square wave tuned to maximise receiver signal

These settings were maintained for the several pulse shapes evaluated. Amplitude and
frequency content of the receiver signal were recorded and tabulated for each variation used.

4. Observations
Although 100ns duration is calculated as the optimal pulse-duration for the half-cycles applied
with cyclic waveforms, it is not possible to use the same principle when applying a spike pulse.

When referring to spike pulsers, Krautkramer [1] notes that the upper limit of pulse frequency
depends on the risetime of discharge. One might rationalise that a spike pulse is similar to a
half-cycle Saw or Square wave pulse and so we could adjust the rise of the spike to reach the
0V level 100ns after the trigger started the spike event. However, the “rate” of rise to the zero
voltage is also a factor in the resulting peak output.

Amplitude and centre frequency were measured for two durations of the spike pulse; one with
100ns duration and the other at 200ns. The durations were measure as indicated in Figure 6.
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 100ns

200ns

Figure 6 Spike pulse durations used

Table 1 summarises the received outputs from the Tx probe for the indicated pulse shapes and
identifies the centre frequency of the pulse seen by the receiver.

Table 1 Maximum Amplitude and Centre Frequency

Pulse Maximum Amplitude Centre Frequency

(mVpp) (MHz)
Spike 100ns 10.1 4.9
Spike 200ns 13.7 4.6
1 cycle Triangle 23.9 5.1
2 cycle Triangle 34.3 5.1
3 cycle Triangle 37.9 5.0
1 cycle Sine 27.8 5.1
2 cycle Sine 38.9 5.5
3 cycle Sine 41.1 5.5
1 cycle Saw 27.3 4.9
2 cycle Saw 28.7 4.5
3 cycle Saw 29.8 4.3
1 cycle Square 34.8 4.9
2 cycle Square 45.5 4.6
3 cycle Square 48.1 4.5
Half-cycle Square wave 15.2 4.9

The peak output values are summarised in graph form in Figure 7.

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 Peak Voltage
60
3 cycles
2 cycles
50

1 cycle
40
mVpp

30

20

10
200ns
100ns
0

Spike Triangle Sine Square Saw

Figure 7 Peak voltages for various pulse shapes

There is a similarity between the half-cycle square wave pulse and the negative spike pulses in
that both use only half the total peak voltage compared to the full cycle pulses. The tuned half-
cycle square wave (100ns) provides approximately the same output as the 200ns duration spike
pulse. This suggests that the 200ns spike has a rise time that is better in tune with the 5MHz
element compared to the 100ns duration spike, and is therefore more suited to maximise output.

Apart from the amplitude, the received signals seem to have a similar shape in the A-scan (time
domain) as seen in Figure 8. Figure 8 has shifted the delays so as to see each of the signals
separately.

Figure 8 Time-delayed A-scan signals from 4 selected pulse shapes

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Viewed in the frequency domain, the signals again appear to have similar characteristics with
the exception of the amplitudes, as indicated in Figure 9.

Figure 8 Amplitude frequency analysis of 4 selected pulse shapes

A somewhat greater difference can be seen when the bandwidth is considered for the driving
pulse shape. Table 2 illustrates how the bandwidth can be changed with changes in the pulse
shape.

Table 2 Effect of pulse-shape on bandwidth

Frequency (MHz) Bandwidth

Pulse Upper Lower Centre (%)

200ns 6.84 2.93 4.885 80.0

Square 6.34 3.42 4.88 59.8

Sine 6.84 3.42 5.13 66.7

Triangle 6.84 3.42 5.13 66.7

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6. Conclusions
It is evident that the applied voltage pulse shape has a bearing on the output of the ultrasonic
probe.

There is an effect on the centre frequency of the probe output with variation in pulse shape and
number of cycles. In the small range of variation used in this test, the change of centre
frequency is considered to be small. Tuning the pulse to extreme values off the ideal can have
significant effects on frequency content and output amplitude [3].

Effect on amplitude output is significantly affected by pulse shape and number of cycles. The
half-cycle pulses (negative spike and negative square wave) provide significantly weaker
outputs compared to full cycle pulses.

Of the four full-cycle shapes examined, the maximum output was achieved for the square wave
pulses. This is the same observation made by Tallavo in his thesis using much lower frequency
transducers with the stacked piezo-element construction.

Future work using a variety of probe diameters and frequencies is recommended to broaden
these observations.

References
1. Krautramer,J., Krautkramer, H., Ultrasonic Testing of Materials – Fourth English
Edition, Springer-Verlag 1990
2. Ginzel, E., Photoelastic Visualisation_Ultrasonic Pulse Interactions Part 6 - Pulse
tuning – Phase and number of cycles
https://www.ndt.net/article/ndtnet/2013/6_Ginzel.pdf, 2013
3. Ginzel, E., Photoelastic Visualisation of Ultrasonic Pulse Interactions Part 5: Effects
of pulse tuning on pulse shape and intensity,
https://www.ndt.net/article/ndtnet/2013/5_Ginzel.pdf, 2013
4. Tallavó, F., Cascante, G., Pandey, M., New Methodology for Source Characterization
in Pulse Velocity Testing, Geotechnical Testing Journal, Vol. 32, No. 6, Paper ID
GTJ101689, Available online at: www.astm.org, 2009

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