Compact structural health monitoring transducers made by ceramic multilayer technology

In nondestructive testing Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has become very attractive because it allows for permanent and online damage detection and characterization of structural components. SHM systems using transmission and receiving of ultrasonic waves are mainly based on piezoceramic transducers made of piezoceramic-polymer-composites. We introduce a new generation of SHM transducers which are fully based on inorganic materials showing a distinguished improve of temperature and chemical stability. Using ceramic multilayer technology piezoceramic discs are integrated into a package of low temperature cofired ceramic sheets enabling for the production of compact ultrasonic transducers with integrated electronic circuits and signal processing units.