Hamed Bouzari

A hand-held row-column addressed CMUT probe with integrated electronics for volumetric imaging

A 3 MHz, λ/2-pitch 62+62 channel row-column addressed 2-D CMUT array designed to be mounted in a probe handle and connected to a commercial BK Medical scanner for real-time volumetric imaging is presented. It is mounted and wire-bonded on a flexible PCB, which is connected to two rigid PCBs with pre-amplifiers for driving the cable to the scanner. The array and PCBs are encapsulated in a 3-D printed handle, and a grounded shielding layer and silicone coating is applied to the front-side of the array for physical and electrical isolation. The handle is assembled together with a 192-channel coaxial cable that connects it to the ultrasound scanner, which supplies the probe with a 190 V DC bias voltage and up to ±75V AC excitation voltage. The probe was successfully connected to a BK3000 scanner and used as two decoupled 1-D phased arrays. Volumetric imaging was demonstrated using the experimental SARUS scanner with 132 volumes/sec.

Curvilinear 3-D Imaging Using Row-Column-Addressed 2-D Arrays With a Diverging Lens: Feasibility Study

Constructing a double-curved row-column-addressed (RCA) 2-D array or applying a diverging lens over the flat RCA 2-D array can extend the imaging field-of-view (FOV) to a curvilinear volume without increasing the aperture size, which is necessary for applications, such as abdominal and cardiac imaging. Extended FOV and low channel count of double-curved RCA 2-D arrays make 3-D imaging possible with equipment in the price range of conventional 2-D imaging. This paper proposes a delay-and-sum beamformation scheme specific to double-curved RCA 2-D arrays and validates its focusing ability based on simulations. A synthetic aperture imaging sequence with single element transmissions is designed for imaging down to 14 cm at a volume rate of 88 Hz. Using a diverging lens with an f-number of −1 circumscribing the underlying RCA array, the imaging quality of a double-curved

Volumetric synthetic aperture imaging with a piezoelectric 2D row-column probe

\lambda /2

Capacitive substrate coupling of row-column-addressed 2-D CMUT arrays

-pitch 3-MHz 62 + 62 RCA 2-D array is investigated as a function of depth within a curvilinear FOV of 60

3-D imaging using row-column-addressed 2-D arrays with a diverging lens

^{\circ }\times 60^{\circ }

Output pressure and harmonic characteristics of a CMUT as function of bias and excitation voltage

. The simulated double-curved 2-D array exhibits the same full-width-at-half-maximum values for a point scatterer within its curvilinear FOV at a fixed radial distance compared with a flat 2-D array within its rectilinear FOV. The results of this paper demonstrate that the proposed beamforming approach is accurate for achieving correct time-of-flight calculations, and hence avoids geometrical distortions.

Volumetric ultrasound imaging with row-column addressed 2-D arrays using Spatial Matched Filter beamforming

The synthetic aperture (SA) technique can be used for achieving real-time volumetric ultrasound imaging using 2-D row-column addressed transducers. This paper investigates SA volumetric imaging performance of an in-house prototyped 3 MHz λ/2-pitch 62+62 element piezoelectric 2-D row-column addressed transducer array. Utilizing single element transmit events, a volume rate of 90 Hz down to 14 cm deep is achieved. Data are obtained using the experimental ultrasound scanner SARUS with a 70 MHz sampling frequency and beamformed using a delay-and-sum (DAS) approach. A signal-to-noise ratio of up to 32 dB is measured on the beamformed images of a tissue mimicking phantom with attenuation of 0.5 dB cm-1 MHz-1, from the surface of the probe to the penetration depth of 300λ. Measured lateral resolution as Full-Width-at-Half-Maximum (FWHM) is between 4λ and 10λ for 18% to 65% of the penetration depth from the surface of the probe. The averaged contrast is 13 dB for the same range. The imaging performance assessment results may represent a reference guide for possible applications of such an array in different medical fields.

Increasing the field-of-view of row–column-addressed ultrasound transducers: implementation of a diverging compound lens

Row-column-addressed CMUT arrays suffer from low receive sensitivity of the bottom elements due to a capacitive coupling to the substrate. The capacitive coupling increases the parasitic capacitance. A simple approach to reduce the parasitic capacitance is presented, which is based on depleting the semiconductor substrate. To reduce the parasitic capacitance by 80% the bulk doping concentration should be at most 1012 cm-3. Experimental results show that the parasitic capacitance can be reduced by 87% by applying a substrate potential of 6V relative to the bottom electrodes. The depletion of the semiconductor substrate can be sustained for at least 10 minutes making it applicable for row-column-addressed CMUT arrays for ultrasonic imaging. Theoretically the reduced parasitic capacitance indicates that the receive sensitivity of the bottom elements can be increased by a factor of 2.1.

Synthetic aperture sequential beamforming using spatial matched filtering

It has been shown that row-column-addressed (RCA) 2-D arrays can be an inexpensive alternative to fully addressed 2-D arrays. Generally imaging with an RCA 2-D array is limited to its forward-looking volume region. Constructing a double-curved RCA 2-D array or applying a diverging lens over the flat RCA 2-D array, can extend the imaging field-of-view (FOV) to a curvilinear volume without increasing the aperture size, which is necessary for applications such as abdominal and cardiac imaging. Extended FOV and low channel count of double-curved RCA 2-D arrays make it possible to have 3-D imaging with equipment in the price range of conventional 2-D imaging. This study proposes a delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformation scheme specific to double-curved RCA 2-D arrays and validates its focusing ability based on simulations. A synthetic aperture imaging (SAI) sequence with single element transmissions at a time, is designed for imaging down to 14 cm at a volume rate of 88 Hz. The curvilinear imaging performance of a λ/2-pitch 3MHz 62+62 RCA 2-D array is investigated as a function of depth, using a diverging lens with f-number of -1. The results of this study demonstrate that the proposed beamforming approach is accurate for achieving correct time-of-flight calculations, and hence avoids geometrical distortions.

Improved focusing method for 3-D imaging using row-column-addressed 2-D arrays

The large bandwidth makes CMUT based transducers interesting for both conventional and harmonic imaging. The inherent nonlinear behavior of the CMUT, however, poses an issue for harmonic imaging as it is difficult to dissociate the harmonics generated in the tissue from the harmonic content of the transmitted signal. The generation of intrinsic harmonics by the CMUT can be minimized by decreasing the excitation signal. This, however, leads to lower fundamental pressure which limits the desired generation of harmonics in the medium. This work examines the output pressure and harmonic characteristics of a CMUT as function of bias and excitation voltage. The harmonic to fundamental ratio of the surface pressures declines for decreasing excitation voltage and increasing bias voltage. The ratio, however, becomes unchanged for bias levels close to the pull-in voltage. The harmonic limitations of the CMUT is emphasized by a maximum ratio of -12 dB between harmonics generated in the medium and total harmonics measured at 10 mm.