Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
The Fused Deposition of Ceramics (FDC) technique was used to fabricate ceramic skeletons for development of piezoelectric composite transducers for medical imaging. The green parts were designed in order to have 30 vol% of PZT-5H ceramic in the final composites. Physical characterization of the sintered samples revealed that 96% of the theoretical density was achieved. Optical microscopy showed that defects, such as small roads and bubbles were eliminated due to powder processing improvements. The electromechanical properties of the final composites were found to be similar to properties obtained for conventionally made composites.