Ultrahigh Frequency Ultrasonic Transducers Design with Low Noise Amplifier Integrated Circuit

Abstract

This paper describes the design of an ultrahigh frequency ultrasound system combined with tightly focused 500 MHz ultrasonic transducers and high frequency wideband low noise amplifier (LNA) integrated circuit (IC) model design. The ultrasonic transducers are designed using Aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric thin film as the piezoelectric element and using silicon lens for focusing. The fabrication and characterization of silicon lens was presented in detail. Finite element simulation was used for transducer design and evaluation. A custom designed LNA circuit is presented for amplifying the ultrasound echo signal with low noise. A Common-source and Common-gate (CS-CG) combination structure with active feedback is adopted for the LNA design so that high gain and wideband performances can be achieved simultaneously. Noise and distortion cancelation mechanisms are also employed in this work to improve the noise figure (NF) and linearity. Designed by using a 0.35 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the simulated power gain of the echo signal wideband amplifier is 22.5 dB at 500 MHz with a capacitance load of 1.0 pF. The simulated NF at 500 MHz is 3.62 dB.

Evaluation of left ventricular diastolic function of patients with coronary heart disease by ultrasound images on bilateral filtering image noise reduction algorithm combined with electrocardiogram

“…[4][5][6] At present, many algorithms have been applied to the denoising of medical ultrasound images, such as wavelet transform, non-average denoising, and bilateral filtering denoising. 7,8 Among them, bilateral filtering can optimize the echocardiography and provide more accurate information.…”

Recent Development and Perspectives of Optimization Design Methods for Piezoelectric Ultrasonic Transducers

“…Higher electromechanical conversion efficiency and acoustic radiation efficiency could be achieved, as shown in Figure 5 B. To realize an ultra-high frequency system, Li et al [ 39 ] designed a tightly focused 500 MHz PUT by a FEM (shown in Figure 5 C). In order to meet the requirement of a high-quality sensor, Lin et al [ 40 ] proposed a 5 MHz piezocomposite ultrasonic transducer based on the finite element analysis software PZFlex (Weidlinger Associates, Cupertino, USA), as shown in Figure 5 D, and found that the piezocomposite ultrasonic transducer had a wider bandwidth (40.6 %) and a higher peak voltage (18 mv) than the PUT fabricated by PZT.…”

“… ( A ) Radiation pattern diagrams of graded ultrasonic transducer, impedance, and pulse echo diagrams of conventional and graded ultrasonic transducers (reproduced from [ 37 ]); ( B ) ANSYS (Ansys Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA) simulation results of impedance and vibration displacement (reproduced from [ 37 ]); ( C ) simulated pulse-echo waveform, spectrum, and schematic diagram of a focused high-frequency piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer (reproduced from [ 38 ]); ( D ) physical diagrams of different types of piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers and simulated radiation patterns (reproduced from [ 39 ]); ( E ) simulated acoustic field, the impulse echo response of a conventional ultrasonic transducer, and a double piezoelectric layer ultrasonic transducer with PMNT + PZT (reproduced from [ 40 ]); ( F ) impulse response of a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer obtained by the KLM model (reproduced from [ 41 ]). …”

Investigation of Cylindrical Piezoelectric and Specific Multi-Channel Circular MEMS-Transducer Array Resonator of Ultrasonic Ablation

“…Therapeutic ultrasound can produce two types of biological effects, namely thermal and nonthermal effects. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics for ultrasonic-induced nonthermal effects can be further classified into cavitation, acoustic streaming, acoustic torque, radiation force, and radiation pressure [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. These nonthermal phenomena are the result of attenuated ultrasound energy after ultrasound is absorbed by the biological tissues or scattering while traveling through biological tissues.…”