AlN-based piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer for photoacoustic imaging

Chen, Bingzhang; Chu, Futong; Liu, Xingzhao; Li, Yanrong; Rong, Jian; Jiang, Huabei

doi:10.1063/1.4816085

Cited by 61 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Similar to cMUTs, pMUTs work in the flexural plate mode, therefore the acoustic impedance of pMUTs is expected to be lowered as well. 5 Unfortunately, performances of the reported pMUTs are much poorer than expectation, especially for the bandwidth. Despite of analytical modeling with a possible bandwidth of over 100% for pMUT, 6 experimental results show that the bandwidth of pMUT is much smaller than this ideal value and even worse than conventional bulk a)…”

mentioning

confidence: 88%

Micromachined piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer with ultra-wide frequency bandwidth

Wang

Kobayashi

Lee

2015

Applied Physics Letters

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An ultrasonic transducer with a wide frequency bandwidth is always preferred for diagnostic ultrasound imaging, because a wide frequency bandwidth can reduce the duration of an ultrasonic pulse and enhance the axial imaging resolution. However, the frequency bandwidth of both conventional ultrasonic transducer and normal piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (pMUT) is quite limited. To overcome this limitation, the mode-merging pMUT is presented in this letter. By using the rectangular membrane with large length/width aspect ratio, several resonant modes are excited within a narrow frequency range. When this pMUT works in a largely damped medium, excited modes are merged together and result in an ultra-wide bandwidth. A À6 dB bandwidth of 95% is measured in water for the proposed pMUT without matching layer, which is much broader than that of conventional pMUTs. Benefited from such ultra-wide frequency bandwidth, the pulse duration of 1 ls is achieved at a central frequency of 1.24 MHz. If this ultra-wide bandwidth pMUT is utilized to replace the conventional transducer for diagnostic ultrasound imaging, the axial resolution can be significantly enhanced without compromising imaging depth.

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mentioning

confidence: 88%

Micromachined piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer with ultra-wide frequency bandwidth

Wang

Kobayashi

Lee

2015

Applied Physics Letters

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“…As shown in Figure 6c, the aUST achieved a significantly enhanced sensitivity of 62.1 µV/Pa at 20 MHz compared with that of the UST (4.3 µV/Pa at 20 MHz). In comparison, Chen et al demonstrated a AIN-based piezoelectric transducer with the sensitivity of 4.22 µV/Pa [48]. As previously stated, the noise equivalent pressure (NEP) is computed by dividing the output noise by the receiving sensitivity of the transducer [49].…”

Section: Data Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity Enhanced Photoacoustic Imaging Using a High-Frequency PZT Transducer with an Integrated Front-End Amplifier

Yang

Jian

Zhu

et al. 2020

Sensors

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Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a hybrid imaging technique that can provide both structural and functional information of biological tissues. Due to limited permissible laser energy deposited on tissues, highly sensitive PA imaging is required. Here, we developed a 20 MHz lead zirconium titanate (PZT) transducer (1.5 mm × 3 mm) with front-end amplifier circuits for local signal processing to achieve sensitivity enhanced PA imaging. The electrical and acoustic performance was characterized. Experiments on phantoms and chicken breast tissue were conducted to validate the imaging performance. The fabricated prototype shows a bandwidth of 63% and achieves a noise equivalent pressure (NEP) of 0.24 mPa/√Hz and a receiving sensitivity of 62.1 μV/Pa at 20 MHz without degradation of the bandwidth. PA imaging of wire phantoms demonstrates that the prototype is capable of improving the detection sensitivity by 10 dB compared with the traditional transducer without integrated amplifier. In addition, in vitro experiments on chicken breast tissue show that structures could be imaged with enhanced contrast using the prototype and the imaging depth range was improved by 1 mm. These results demonstrate that the transducer with an integrated front-end amplifier enables highly sensitive PA imaging with improved penetration depth. The proposed method holds the potential for visualization of deep tissue structures and enhanced detection of weak physiological changes.

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“…In order to improve the detection sensitivity and bandwidth of the photoacoustic endomicroscopy, many different approaches have been proposed in the MEMS research field. Similar to those sensors for US imaging, there are basically three main-stream designs [ 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , 120 , 121 ]: optical ultrasonic sensor (such as microring and Fabry–Perot hydrophone) [ 113 , 114 , 115 , 116 , 117 , 118 ], CMUT [ 119 , 120 ] and PMUT [ 121 ]. Since some other ultrasonic sensors are still in the proof-of-concept stage, we will mainly describe the optical resonator microring and PMUT acoustic sensors which have been utilized in preliminary studies for photoacoustic endomicroscopes.…”

Section: Photoacoustic Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Besides the optically sensing ultrasound signal with microring resonator, there are two other typical MEMS based micromachined ultrasonic transducer, capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) [ 119 , 120 ] and piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) [ 121 ]. Compared with the CMUT ultrasound sensor, PMUT does not require high polarization voltages and small capacitive gaps needed in CMUT, although PMUTs naturally have lower electromechanical coupling.…”

Section: Photoacoustic Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Endoscopic Imaging Technology Based on MEMS Sensors and Actuators

Qiu

Piyawattanamatha

2017

Micromachines

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Over the last decade, optical fiber-based forms of microscopy and endoscopy have extended the realm of applicability for many imaging modalities. Optical fiber-based imaging modalities permit the use of remote illumination sources and enable flexible forms supporting the creation of portable and hand-held imaging instrumentations to interrogate within hollow tissue cavities. A common challenge in the development of such devices is the design and integration of miniaturized optical and mechanical components. Until recently, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors and actuators have been playing a key role in shaping the miniaturization of these components. This is due to the precision mechanics of MEMS, microfabrication techniques, and optical functionality enabling a wide variety of movable and tunable mirrors, lenses, filters, and other optical structures. Many promising results from MEMS based optical fiber endoscopy have demonstrated great potentials for clinical translation. In this article, reviews of MEMS sensors and actuators for various fiber-optical endoscopy such as fluorescence, optical coherence tomography, confocal, photo-acoustic, and two-photon imaging modalities will be discussed. This advanced MEMS based optical fiber endoscopy can provide cellular and molecular features with deep tissue penetration enabling guided resections and early cancer assessment to better treatment outcomes.

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AlN-based piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer for photoacoustic imaging

Cited by 61 publications

References 17 publications

Micromachined piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer with ultra-wide frequency bandwidth

Micromachined piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer with ultra-wide frequency bandwidth

Sensitivity Enhanced Photoacoustic Imaging Using a High-Frequency PZT Transducer with an Integrated Front-End Amplifier

New Endoscopic Imaging Technology Based on MEMS Sensors and Actuators

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