Mathias Engholm

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 }

3D vector flow using a row-column addressed CMUT array

. 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.

Modeling of CMUTs with multiple anisotropic layers and residual stress

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.

Output pressure and pulse-echo characteristics of CMUTs as function of plate dimensions

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.

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

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.

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

This paper presents an in-house developed 2-D capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) applied for 3-D blood flow estimation. The probe breaks with conventional transducers in two ways; first, the ultrasonic pressure field is generated from thousands of small vibrating micromachined cells, and second, elements are accessed by row and/or column indices. The 62+62 2-D row-column addressed prototype CMUT probe was used for vector flow estimation by transmitting focused ultrasound into a flow-rig with a fully developed parabolic flow. The beam-to-flow angle was 90°. The received data was beamformed and processed offline. A transverse oscillation (TO) velocity estimator was used to estimate the 3-D vector flow along a line originating from the center of the transducer. The estimated velocities in the lateral and axial direction were close to zero as expected. In the transverse direction a characteristic parabolic velocity profile was estimated with a peak velocity of 0.48 m/s ± 0.02 m/s in reference to the expected 0.54 m/s. The results presented are the first 3-D vector flow estimates obtained with a row-column CMUT probe, which demonstrates that the CMUT technology is feasible for 3-D flow estimation.