Because stroke remains an important and time-sensitive health concern in developed nations, we present a system capable of fusing 3-D transcranial ultrasound volumes acquired from two sides of the head. This system uses custom sparse array transducers built on flexible multilayer circuits that can be positioned for simultaneous imaging through both temporal acoustic windows, allowing for potential registration of multiple real-time 3-D scans of cerebral vasculature. We examine hardware considerations for new matrix arrays—transducer design and interconnects—in this application. Specifically, it is proposed that SNR may be increased by reducing the length of probe cables. This claim is evaluated as part of the presented system through simulation, experimental data, and in vivo imaging. Ultimately, gains in SNR of 7 dB are realized by replacing a standard probe cable with a much shorter flex interconnect; higher gains may be possible using ribbon-based probe cables. In vivo images are presented, showing cerebral arteries with and without the use of microbubble contrast agent; they have been registered and fused using a simple algorithm which maximizes normalized cross-correlation.

The design, fabrication, and evaluation of two dimensional array transducers for real-time volumetric imaging are described. The transducers we have previously described operated at frequencies below 3 MHz and were unwieldy to the operator because of the interconnect schemes used in connecting to the transducer handle. Several new transducers have been developed using new connection technology. A 40 x 40 = 1,600 element, 3.5 MHz array was fabricated with 256 transmit and 256 receive elements. A 60 x 60 = 3,600 element 5.0 MHz array was constructed with 248 transmit and 256 receive elements. An 80 x 80 = 6,400 element, 2.5 MHz array was fabricated with 256 transmit and 208receive elements. 2-D transducer arrays were also developed for volumetric scanning in an intra cardiac catheter, a 10 x 10 = 100 element 5.0 MHz forward-looking array and an 11 x 13 = 143 element 5.0 MHz side-scanning array. The-6dB fractional bandwidths for the different arrays varied from 50% to 63%, and the 50 omega insertion loss for all the transducers was about-64 dB. The transducers were used to generate real-time volumetric images in phantoms and in vivo using the Duke University real time volumetric imaging system, which is capable of generating multiple planes at any desired angle and depth within the pyramidal volume.

Feasibility studies of autonomous robot biopsies in tissue have been conducted using real time 3D ultrasound combined with simple thresholding algorithms. The robot first autonomously processed 3D image volumes received from the ultrasound scanner to locate a metal rod target embedded in turkey breast tissue simulating a calcification, and in a separate experiment, the center of a waterfilled void in the breast tissue simulating a cyst. In both experiments the robot then directed a needle to the desired target, with no user input required. Separate needle-touch experiments performed by the image-guided robot in a water tank yielded an rms error of 1.15 mm.

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An autonomous multiple-core biopsy system guided by real-time 3D ultrasound and operated by a robotic arm with 6+1 degrees of freedom has been developed. Using a specimen of turkey breast as a tissue phantom, our system was able to first autonomously locate the phantom in the image volume and then perform needle sticks in each of eight sectors in the phantom in a single session, with no human intervention required. Based on the fraction of eight sectors successfully sampled in an experiment of five trials, a success rate of 93% was recorded. This system could have relevance in clinical procedures that involve multiple needle-core sampling such as prostate or breast biopsy.