NSF Award
0339410
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes the development of a Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) based, 2D ultrasonic transducer array for 3D imaging in real time, featuring near-photographic image quality with sub-millimeter resolution at 20cm depth. Current 2D ultrasound systems employ a 1D array of transducers to accumulate images. A 2D array is universally acknowledged as the ideal approach for 3D image acquisition; however, multiple challenges must be overcome to make this practical, including: limitations in existing piezoelectric transducer technology, connecting an array with many elements (e.g., > 16,000) to front-end electronics, and processing large amounts of image data in real-time. The highly collaborative Phase I effort will focus on the design and simulation of key building blocks of the array, including a specialized transducer design; fully-populated array architecture with over 16,000 elements; and integrated multiplexing scheme to reduce interconnect lead count.<br/><br/>The developed technology will bring many new capabilities to medical imaging, including volumetric flow, and real-time 3D imaging for tumor evaluation, image-guided surgery, and fetal echo-cardiography. Ultrasound provides real-time medical imaging, is safer than radiation-based modalities, and is less expensive to buy and maintain than magneto-resonance imaging (MRI) system. 2D ultrasound imaging is currently used for abdominal, breast, cardiovascular, OB/GYN, pediatrics, and a host of other diagnostic modalities. The developed 2D transducer array technology, once incorporated into a commercially viable, practical, easy-to-use, high quality 3D/4D ultrasound system has potentially immense societal impact. Such a system would:
