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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Ultrasonic Source (SUS) is a system comprising a transducer capable of output power levels up to 1 W at multiple frequencies between 1 MHz and 30 MHz, and an electrical impedance-matching network that allows the system to be driven by a conventional 50 Ω rf (radio-frequency) source. It is designed to allow interlaboratory replication of ultrasonic power levels with high accuracy using inexpensive readily available ancillary equipment. The SUS was offered for sale for 14 years (1985 to 1999). Each system was furnished with data for the set of calibration points (combinations of power level and frequency) specified by the customer. Of the systems that had been ordered with some calibration points in common, three were returned more than once to NIST for recalibration. Another system retained at NIST has been recalibrated periodically since 1984. The collective data for these systems comprise 9 calibration points and 102 measurements spanning a 17 year interval ending in 2001, the last year NIST ultrasonic power measurement services were available to the public. These data have been analyzed to compare variations in output power with frequency, power level, and time elapsed since the first calibration. The results verify the claim, made in the instruction sheet furnished with every SUS, that "long-term drift, if any, in the calibration of NIST Standard Sources is insignificant compared to the uncertainties associated with a single measurement of ultrasonic power by any method available at NIST."

Radiation force balance (RFB) measurements of time-averaged, spatially-integrated ultrasound power transmitted into a reflectionless water load are based on measurements of the power received by the RFB target. When conical targets are used to intercept the output of collimated, circularly symmetric ultrasound sources operating at frequencies above a few megahertz, the correction for in-situ attenuation is significant, and differs significantly from predictions for idealized circumstances. Empirical attenuation correction factors for a 45° (half-angle) absorptive conical RFB target have been determined for 24 frequencies covering the 5 MHz to 30 MHz range. They agree well with previously unpublished attenuation calibration factors determined in 1994 for a similar target.