For three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging, connecting elements of a two-dimensional (2D) transducer array to the imaging system's front-end electronics is a challenge because of the large number of array elements and the small element size. To compactly connect the transducer array with electronics, we flip-chip bond a 2D 16 x 16-element capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array to a custom-designed integrated circuit (IC). Through-wafer interconnects are used to connect the CMUT elements on the top side of the array with flip-chip bond pads on the back side. The IC provides a 25-V pulser and a transimpedance preamplifier to each element of the array. For each of three characterized devices, the element yield is excellent (99 to 100% of the elements are functional). Center frequencies range from 2.6 MHz to 5.1 MHz. For pulse echo operation, the average - 6-dB fractional bandwidth is as high as 125%. Transmit pressures normalized to the face of the transducer are as high as 339 kPa and input-referred receiver noise is typically 1.2 to 2.1 mPa/pHz. The flip-chip bonded devices were used to acquire 3D synthetic aperture images of a wire-target phantom. Combining the transducer array and IC, as shown in this paper, allows for better utilization of large arrays, improves receive sensitivity, and may lead to new imaging techniques that depend on transducer arrays that are closely coupled to IC electronics.

This paper presents a microfluidic mixer that uses acoustic stirring created by ultrasonic waves. The ultrasound is introduced into the channel by integrated piezoelectric transducers. The transducers are made of a zinc oxide thin film, which is deposited on the bottom surface of a quartz substrate. The poly(dimethylsiloxane) channel is aligned to the transducers on the top surface of the substrate. The transducers are designed for operation around 450 MHz. The main mechanism of the mixing is the acoustic stirring of the fluid perpendicular to the flow direction. The radiation pressure that is generated by the transducer causes the stirring inside the microfluidic channel. The performance of the mixer is characterized by mixing phenolphthalein solution and sodium hydroxide dissolved in ethyl alcohol. Flow rates on the order of 1-100 microL/min are used. The transducers are driven by 1.2 V(rms) sinusoidal voltages at 450 MHz.

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In real-time ultrasonic 3-D imaging, in addition to difficulties in fabricating and interconnecting 2-D transducer arrays with hundreds of elements, there are also challenges in acquiring and processing data from a large number of ultrasound channels. The coarray (spatial convolution of the transmit and receive arrays) can be used to find efficient array designs that capture all of the spatial frequency content (a transmit-receive element combination corresponds to a spatial frequency) with a reduced number of active channels and firing events. Eliminating the redundancies in the transmit-receive element combinations and firing events reduces the overall system complexity and improves the frame rate. Here we explore four reduced redundancy 2-D array configurations for miniature 3-D ultrasonic imaging systems. Our approach is based on 1) coarray design with reduced redundancy using different subsets of linear arrays constituting the 2-D transducer array, and 2) 3-D scanning using fan-beams (narrow in one dimension and broad in the other dimension) generated by the transmit linear arrays. We form the overall array response through coherent summation of the individual responses of each transmit-receive array pairs. We present theoretical and simulated point spread functions of the array configurations along with quantitative comparison in terms of the front-end complexity and image quality.

State-of-the-art 3-D medical ultrasound imaging requires transmitting and receiving ultrasound using a 2-D array of ultrasound transducers with hundreds or thousands of elements. A tight combination of the transducer array with integrated circuitry eliminates bulky cables connecting the elements of the transducer array to a separate system of electronics. Furthermore, preamplifiers located close to the array can lead to improved receive sensitivity. A combined IC and transducer array can lead to a portable, high-performance, and inexpensive 3-D ultrasound imaging system. This paper presents an IC flip-chip bonded to a 16 x 16-element capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array for 3-D ultrasound imaging. The IC includes a transmit beamformer that generates 25-V unipolar pulses with programmable focusing delays to 224 of the 256 transducer elements. One-shot circuits allow adjustment of the pulse widths for different ultrasound transducer center frequencies. For receiving reflected ultrasound signals, the IC uses the 32-elements along the array diagonals. The IC provides each receiving element with a low-noise 25-MHz-bandwidth transimpedance amplifier. Using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) clocked at 100 MHz to operate the IC, the IC generated properly timed transmit pulses with 5-ns accuracy. With the IC flip-chip bonded to a CMUT array, we show that the IC can produce steered and focused ultrasound beams. We present 2-D and 3-D images of a wire phantom and 2-D orthogonal cross-sectional images (Bscans) of a latex heart phantom.