• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.437-443
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• 2010

In recent years, as nano scale structured thin film technology has emerged in various fields such as the materials, biomedical and acoustic sciences, the quantitative nondestructive adhesion evaluation of thin film interfaces using ultra high frequency scanning acoustic microscopy(SAM) has become an important issue in terms of the longevity and durability of thin film devices. In this study, an effective technique for investigating the interfaces of nano scale structured thin film systems is described, based on the focusing of ultrasonic waves, the generation of leaky surface acoustic waves(LSAWs), V(z) curve simulation and ultra high frequency acoustical imaging_ Computer simulations of the V(z) curve were performed to estimate the sensitivity of detection of micro flaws(i.e., delamination) in a thin film system. Finally, experiments were conducted to confirm that a SAM system operating at a frequency of 1 GHz can be useful to visualize the micro flaws in nano structured thin film systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.84-89
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• 2006

A laser ultrasonic inspection system is a non-contact inspection device which generates and measures ultrasounds by using laser beams. A laser ultrasonic inspection system provides a high measurement resolution because the ultrasonic signal generated by a pulse laser beam has a wide-band spectrum and the ultrasonic signal is measured from a small focused spot of a measuring laser beam. In this paper, we have investigated the detection techniques of a surface-breaking crack by using the laser ultrasonic surface waves. A crack acts as a low pass filter whose cut-off frequency is lowered in proportion to the depth of a crack. And, the center frequency value of a spectrum is decreased in proportion to the depth of a crack. In this paper, we extracted the crack information by using the frequency attenuation from the normalized transfer function spectrum of a surface-breaking crack. Also, we effectively measured the crack depth by using the decreasing value of the center frequency from a crack passed ultrasonic signal. The proposed measuring techniques of crack depths provided more precise information than the amplitude measuring technique.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.215-222
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• 2011

In order to obtain high resolution images, a focusing ultrasonic transducer operated in very high frequency (VHF) range was fabricated and its characteristics were evaluated. A 9-${\mu}m$ thick PVDF film with only one metalized surface for electric ground was adhered to a CCP (Copper-clad polyimide) film by using epoxy. It was pressed by a metal ball to form a concave surface and its rear side was filled with the epoxy. The radius of curvature and the f-number of the fabricated transducer are 7.5 mm and 1.7, respectively. The pulse-echo measurement results from a target located at the focal point showed that the frequency bandwidth was 35.0 MHz and the insertion loss near the peak frequency of approximately 40 MHz was about 60 dB. Those values agreed well with the simulation results by the KLM equivalent circuit analysis including the effect of the epoxy bonding layer. When the image of thin copper lines by the 35 MHz transducer of the UBM (Ultrasonic Backscattering Microscope) system was compared with the image by the transducer fabricated in this study, the fabricated transducer was observed that the axial resolution was improved although the lateral resolution was degraded.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2016

The type of ultrasound transducer used influences the quality of a reconstructed ultrasound image. This study analyzed the effect of transducer type on ultrasound computed tomography (UCT) image quality. The UCT was modeled in an ultrasound simulator by using a 5 cm anatomy model and a ring-shape 5 MHz 128 transducer array, which considered attenuation, refraction, and reflection. Speed-of-sound images were reconstructed by the Radon transform as the UCT image modality. Acoustic impedance images were also reconstructed by the delay-and-sum (DAS) method, which considered the speed of sound information. To determine the optimal combination of transducers in observation, point-source, flat, and focused transducers were tested in combination as trasmitters and receivers; UCT images were constructed from each combination. The combination of point-source/flat transducer as transmitting and receiving devices presented the best reconstructed image quality. In UCT implementation, the combination of a flat transducer for transmitting and a point transducer for receiving permitted acceptable image quality.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.25-31
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• 2020

In this study, for the safe use of a portable ultrasonic skin-beauty device, an android app was developed to show the irradiation locations of focused ultrasound to a user through augmented reality (AR) and enable stable self-surgery. The utility of the app was assessed through testing. While the user is making a facial treatment with the beauty device, the user's face and the ultrasonic irradiation location on the face are detected in real-time with a smart-phone camera. The irradiation location is then indicated on the face image and shown to the user so that excessive ultrasound is not irradiated to the same area during treatment. To this end, ML-Kit is used to detect the user's face landmarks in real-time, and they are compared with a reference face model to estimate the pose of the face, such as rotation and movement. After mounting a LED on the ultrasonic irradiation part of the device and operating the LED during irradiation, the LED light was searched to find the position of the ultrasonic irradiation on the smart-phone screen, and the irradiation position was registered and displayed on the face image based on the estimated face pose. Each task performed in the app was implemented through the thread and the timer, and all tasks were executed within 75 ms. The test results showed that the time taken to register and display 120 ultrasound irradiation positions was less than 25ms, and the display accuracy was within 20mm when the face did not rotate significantly.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.324-329
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• 2022

This paper proposes a shift-register-based multichannel ultrasonic focusing delay control method using a complex programmable logic device (CPLD) for a high resolution of ultrasonic focusing system. The proposed method can achieve the ultrasonic focusing through the delay control of driving signals of each ultrasonic transducer of an ultrasonic array. The delay of the driving signals of all ultrasonic channels can be controlled by setting the shift register in the CPLD. The experiment verified that the frequency of the clock used for the delay control increased, the error of the focusing point decreased, and the diameter of the focusing point decreased as the length of the shift register in the proposed method. The proposed method used only one CPLD for ultrasonic focusing and did not require to use complex hardware circuits. Therefore, the resources required for the design of an ultrasonic focusing system could be reduced. The proposed method can be applied to the fields of human computer interaction (HCI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.403-411
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to identify the experience of patients with uterine benign neoplasms in response to high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment. The study participants were patients who received high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment after diagnosis of benign uterine neoplasms and were contacted through purposive techniques. Five patients agreed to participate in this study. Data were collected from February, 2018 to May, 2018 at Women's hospital in D city. The interview data were analyzed by the phenomenological analysis method developed by Colaizzi using open-ended questions during in-depth interviews. Three categories emerged from the analysis using Colaizzi's method: 1) Discomfort. 2) Ambivalence. 3) Will and need. These study results contribute to a deeper understanding of the experience of patients with uterine benign neoplasms in response to high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment. Therefore, it should be developed as part of an effective nursing education program to provide evidence-based guidelines and nursing interventions that alleviate health problems in patients receiving high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment and proper nursing understanding of the development of new treatment methods for woman's health.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 2011

The ultrasonic guided wave phased array using magnetostrictive patch transducers is proposed. The magnetostrictive transducer has received much attention because it is cost-effective and capable to generate ultrasonic waves with a simple configuration. However, it has not been used for ultrasonic guided wave phased array applications until now. In this paper, we propose a magnetostrictive transducer based phased array system consisting of a multi-channel function generator, power amplifiers and Lamb wave magnetostrictive transducers. To check the performance of the ultrasonic guided wave phased array, several Lamb wave focusing experiments were carried out in an aluminum plate. The results demonstrated the capability of the developed array to focus the Lamb waves at specific target points.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1987.07b
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• pp.1252-1255
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• 1987

In this paper an approach for the analysis of the transient field response of radially symmetric transducer due to a wideband ultrasonic pulse is presented, which is based on a development of Green's function and applies the linear system theory to obtain an analytic expression for the impulse response of an annulus with a planar or spherical geometry. For the focused annular array, the impulse responses of the indivisual annuli are convolved with the delayed excitation pulse, and then summed to obtain the resultant response of the array. This process is very effective in the study of the various focusing abilities of the annular array. For illustration, the field distribution of a five element annular array is treated in detail for several focusing system.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.11c
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• pp.187-190
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• 2001

A new ultrasound imaging technique based on simultaneous multiple transmit focusing using orthogonal modified Golay codes is presented. modified Golay codes are used to increase signal-to-noise-ratio(SNR) and maximize the transmit power efficiency(TPE). Conventional Golay codes consist of a pair of complementary codes with same length and can be compressed into a delta-like signal due to their complementary property. In the present work, two modified Golay codes focused at different depths are transmitted at the same time, which are mutually orthogonal. On receive, these orthogonal modified Golay codes are separately compressed into two short pulses and individually focused. These two focused beam are combined to form a frame of image with improved lateral resolution. Computer simulations are performed to verity the proposed method improves the lateral resolution of image compared with the conventional echo system.