In this paper, analytical modeling of a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) elemental cell has been carried out to get an understanding of the behavior of the transducer. The mechanical effects on the membranes of CMUT are analysed and discussed by means of electro-mechanical circuit model of CMUT which describes the displacement behavior of membrane with respect to applied biases operating at 1MHz and with the membrane’s dimensions in microns. To get confirmation of the results and additional information, three-dimensional (3-D) numeric modeling is done with PZFLEX, a commercially available finite element method (FEM) simulation tool. It assists in selecting the appropriate membrane shape for medical imaging applications. It is found that the circular membrane configuration is most suited for such applications. The modeling approaches help in achieving at the dimensions of the structure with respect to maximizing the membrane displacement for a specific application. The simulated results are in good agreement with the theoretical model predictions.

CMUT, FEM, medical imaging, PZFLEX.