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A piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) is a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device that can transmit and receive ultrasonic waves. Given its advantages of high-frequency ultrasound with good directionality and high resolution, PMUT can be used in application scenarios with low power supply, such as fingerprint recognition, nondestructive testing, and medical diagnosis. Here, a PMUT based on an aluminum nitride thin-film material is designed and fabricated. First, the eigenfrequencies of the PMUT are studied with multiphysics coupling simulation software, and the relationship between eigenfrequencies and vibration layer parameters is determined. The transmission performance of the PMUT is obtained via simulation. The PMUT device is fabricated in accordance with the designed simple MEMS processing process. The topography of the PMUT vibration layer is determined via scanning electron microscopy, and the resonant frequency of the PMUT device is 7.43 MHz. The electromechanical coupling coefficient is 2.21% via an LCR tester.

Ultrasound is widely used in industry and the agricultural, biomedical, military, and other fields. As key components in ultrasonic applications, the characteristic parameters of ultrasonic transducers fundamentally determine the performance of ultrasonic systems. High-frequency ultrasonic transducers are small in size and require high precision, which puts forward higher requirements for sensor design, material selection, and processing methods. In this paper, a three-dimensional model of a high-frequency piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) is established based on the finite element method (FEM). This 3D model consists of a substrate, a silicon device layer, and a molybdenum-aluminum nitride-molybdenum (Mo-AlN-Mo) sandwich piezoelectric layer. The effect of the shape of the transducer’s vibrating membrane on the transmission performance was studied. Through a discussion of the parametric scanning of the key dimensions of the diaphragms of the three structures, it was concluded that the fundamental resonance frequency of the hexagonal diaphragm was higher than that of the circle and the square under the same size. Compared with the circular diaphragm, the sensitivity of the square diaphragm increased by 8.5%, and the sensitivity of the hexagonal diaphragm increased by 10.7%. The maximum emission sound-pressure level of the hexagonal diaphragm was 6.6 times higher than that of the circular diaphragm. The finite element results show that the hexagonal diaphragm design has great advantages for improving the transmission performance of the high-frequency PMUT.