Experimental study of dual-ring CMUT array optimization for forward-looking IVUS

Tekeş, Coşkun; Zahorian, Jaime; Gurun, Gokce; Satır, Sarp; Hochman, Michael; Xu, Toby; Rashid, M. Wasequr; Degertekin, Levent; Karaman, Mustafa

doi:10.1109/ultsym.2011.0277

“…All IC's in single-chip system are custom design which includes pulsers, capable of generating 25-V unipolar pulses and low-noise receiver transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) for each of the CMUT receive array elements. We have demonstrated the characterization and imaging performance of these devices in various studies [1][2][3][4]. In this study, ICE configuration (2.1-mm diameter array) is considered as a test case to explore the available design space offered by the CMUT-on-CMOS approach.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

CMUT-based volumetric ultrasonic imaging array design for forward looking ICE and IVUS applications

Tekeş

¹

,

Zahorian

²

,

Xu

³

et al. 2013

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Designing a mechanically flexible catheter based volumetric ultrasonic imaging device for intravascular and intracardiac imaging is challenging due to small transducer area and limited number of cables. With a few parallel channels, synthetic phased array processing is necessary to acquire data from a large number of transducer elements. This increases the data collection time and hence reduces frame rate and causes artifacts due to tissue-transducer motion. Some of these drawbacks can be resolved by different array designs offered by CMUT-on-CMOS approach. We recently implemented a 2.1-mm diameter single chip 10 MHz dual ring CMUT-on-CMOS array for forward looking ICE with 64-transmit and 56-receive elements along with associated electronics. These volumetric arrays have the small element size required by high operating frequencies and achieve sub mm resolution, but the system would be susceptible to motion artifacts. To enable real time imaging with high SNR, we designed novel arrays consisting of multiple defocused annular rings for transmit aperture and a single ring receive array. The annular transmit rings are utilized to act as a high power element by focusing to a virtual ring shaped line behind the aperture. In this case, image reconstruction is performed by only receive beamforming, reducing total required firing steps from 896 to 14 with a trade-off in image resolution. The SNR of system is improved more than 5 dB for the same frequency and frame rate as compared to the dual ring array, which can be utilized to achieve the same resolution by increasing the operating frequency.

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“…All IC’s in single-chip system are custom design which includes pulsers, capable of generating 25-V unipolar pulses and low-noise receiver trans-impedance amplifiers (TIAs) for each of the CMUT receive array elements. We have demonstrated the characterization and imaging performance of these devices in various studies [1–4]. In this study, ICE configuration (2.1-mm diameter array) is considered as a test case to explore the available design space offered by the CMUT-on-CMOS approach.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Volumetric imaging using single chip integrated CMUT-on-CMOS IVUS array

Tekeş

¹

,

Zahorian

²

,

Gurun

³

et al. 2012

2012 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society

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Designing a mechanically flexible catheter based volumetric ultrasonic imaging device for intravascular and intracardiac imaging is challenging due to small transducer area and limited number of cables. With a few parallel channels, synthetic phased array processing is necessary to acquire data from a large number of transducer elements. This increases the data collection time and hence reduces frame rate and causes artifacts due to tissue-transducer motion. Some of these drawbacks can be resolved by different array designs offered by CMUT-on-CMOS approach. We recently implemented a 2.1-mm diameter single chip 10 MHz dual ring CMUT-on-CMOS array for forward looking ICE with 64-transmit and 56-receive elements along with associated electronics. These volumetric arrays have the small element size required by high operating frequencies and achieve sub mm resolution, but the system would be susceptible to motion artifacts. To enable real time imaging with high SNR, we designed novel arrays consisting of multiple defocused annular rings for transmit aperture and a single ring receive array. The annular transmit rings are utilized to act as a high power element by focusing to a virtual ring shaped line behind the aperture. In this case, image reconstruction is performed by only receive beamforming, reducing total required firing steps from 896 to 14 with a trade-off in image resolution. The SNR of system is improved more than 5 dB for the same frequency and frame rate as compared to the dual ring array, which can be utilized to achieve the same resolution by increasing the operating frequency.

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“…We recently realized a single-chip volumetric imaging system using monolithic CMUT-on-CMOS integration where dual-ring CMUT arrays were fabricated directly on top of pre-processed custom designed CMOS wafers and presented some initial results in conferences [21, 22]. Here, we present the design, testing and quantitative characterization of the overall single-chip front-end system suitable for volumetric IVUS and ICE imaging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single-chip CMUT-on-CMOS front-end system for real-time volumetric IVUS and ICE imaging

Gurun

¹

,

Tekeş

²

,

Zahorian

³

et al. 2014

IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr.

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Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and intracardiac echography (ICE) catheters with real-time volumetric ultrasound imaging capability can provide unique benefits to many interventional procedures used in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary and structural heart diseases. Integration of CMUT arrays with front-end electronics in single-chip configuration allows for implementation of such catheter probes with reduced interconnect complexity, miniaturization, and high mechanical flexibility. We implemented a single-chip forward-looking (FL) ultrasound imaging system by fabricating a 1.4-mm-diameter dual-ring CMUT array using CMUT-on-CMOS technology on a front-end IC implemented in 0.35-µm CMOS process. The dual-ring array has 56 transmit elements and 48 receive elements on two separate concentric annular rings. The IC incorporates a 25-V pulser for each transmitter and a low-noise capacitive transimpedance amplifier (TIA) for each receiver, along with digital control and smart power management. The final shape of the silicon chip is a 1.5-mm-diameter donut with a 430-µm center hole for a guide wire. The overall front-end system requires only 13 external connections and provides 4 parallel RF outputs while consuming an average power of 20 mW. We measured RF A-scans from the integrated single-chip array which show full functionality at 20.1 MHz with 43% fractional bandwidth. We also tested and demonstrated the image quality of the system on a wire phantom and an ex-vivo chicken heart sample. The measured axial and lateral point resolutions are 92 µm and 251 µm, respectively. We successfully acquired volumetric imaging data from the ex-vivo chicken heart with 60 frames per second without any signal averaging. These demonstrative results indicate that single-chip CMUT-on-CMOS systems have the potential to produce real-time volumetric images with image quality and speed suitable for catheter based clinical applications.

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Experimental study of dual-ring CMUT array optimization for forward-looking IVUS

Cited by 4 publications

References 10 publications

CMUT-based volumetric ultrasonic imaging array design for forward looking ICE and IVUS applications

CMUT-based volumetric ultrasonic imaging array design for forward looking ICE and IVUS applications

Volumetric imaging using single chip integrated CMUT-on-CMOS IVUS array

Single-chip CMUT-on-CMOS front-end system for real-time volumetric IVUS and ICE imaging

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