DOUBLE-LAYER ACTUATOR

This paper examines the potential for dual-layer actuators to achieve radiation efficiencies independent of the backing structure. It presen ts a simple center-of-mass representation for the device, and uses it to describe the kinematics of the dual layer actuator system with the purpose of identifying broad guidelines regarding thickness and freque ncy range issues. This approach has the advantage of providing a direc t physical view of the device operation. In this context, it is shown that these devices work by electrically moving the center of mass of t he transducer in opposition to the motion of tile adjoining fluid. Whi le such devices are shown to be generally less efficient than the simp le parallel-driven double-layer transducer, over much of their operati ng range the loss in efficiency is found to be only a few decibels.