25.8 Gb/s Submillimeter Optical Data Link Module for Smart Catheters

The digitization of smart catheters will dramatically increase the demand for reliable and high data transmission in the distal tips. Optical fiber is a good candidate to provide high-speed data transmission. However, the extremely small size of the smart catheter tip, with less than a few millimeters in diameter, hampers the integration of...

Real-Time Coded Excitation Imaging Using a CMUT-based Side Looking Array for Intravascular Ultrasound

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a well-established diagnostic method that provides images of the vessel wall and atherosclerotic plaques. We investigate the potential for phased-array IVUS utilizing coded excitation (CE) for improving the penetration depth and image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). It is realized on a new experimental...

Embedded High-Density Trench Capacitors for Smart Catheters

Our work presents embedded high-density oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) trench capacitors for power supply decoupling in the next generation of smart catheters. These millimeter-scale smart catheters are using a novel integration platform, Flex-to-Rigid (F2R). In the F2R platform, various functional modules are fabricated or assembled on thin silicon...

Pressure measurement of geometrically curved ultrasound transducer array for spatially specific stimulation of the vagus nerve

Vagus nerve stimulators currently on the market can treat epilepsy and depression. Recent clinical trials show the potential for vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) to treat epilepsy, autoimmune disease, and traumatic brain injury. As we explore the benefits of VNS, it is expected that more possibilities for a new treatment will emerge in the future....

Tiles CMUT dies with pitch uniformity

A large aperture CMUT transducer array is formed of a plurality of adjacently located tiles of CMUT cells. The adjacent edges of the tiles are formed by an anisotropic etch process, preferably a deep reactive ion etching process which is capable of cutting through the die and its substrate while maintaining vertical edges in close proximity to...

Intravascular Ultrasound at the Tip of a Guidewire: Concept and First Assembly Steps

Minimally invasive surgery of the most lethal disease worldwide, coronary artery disease, benefits from better diagnostic tools during the treatment. With this in mind, a novel concept is introduced for intravascular ultrasound on a 360 μm diameter guidewire. The complex manufacture of this medical instrument, and other devices that require...

Ultrasonic transducer chip assembly, ultrasound probe, ultrasonic imaging system and ultrasound assembly and probe manufacturing methods

Disclosed is an ultrasonic transducer assembly comprising an ultrasonic transducer chip (100) having a main surface comprising a plurality of ultrasound transducer elements (112) and a plurality of first contacts (120) for connecting to said ultrasound transducer elements; a contact chip (400) having a further main surface comprising a plurality...

Ultrasound transducer assembly and method for manufacturing an ultrasound transducer assembly

The present invention relates to an ultrasound transducer assembly (10), in particular for intravascular ultrasound systems. The ultrasound transducer assembly comprises at least one silicon substrate element (30) including an ultrasound transducer element (14) for emitting and receiving ultrasound waves and including electrical connectors for...

Miniaturized Optical Data Link Assembly for 360 um Guidewires

We propose a novel concept for a high-speed optical data link in Ø 360 µm cardiovascular interventional imaging guidewires. The concept is based on the recently introduced Flex-to-Rigid (F2R) technology platform. This technology allows for smaller intravascular imaging devices with a more compact form-factor. We extended the existing F2R...

Residue-free plasma etching of polyimide coatings for small pitch vias with improved step coverage

The authors have found that patterning polyimide coatings containing organosilane adhesion promoter using pure oxygen plasma resulted in a thin silicon-rich residue layer. They show in this paper that adding small amounts of fluorine-containing gas to the etching gas mixture is necessary in order to achieve residue-free polyimide plasma etching....

Inrichting voor het uitlijnen van een glasfibervezel

Product-internal assembly functions: A novel micro-assembly concept applied to optical interconnects

In this project, the technical feasibility of a novel assembly concept was explored, in which microsystem-based self-assembly functionality is added to an existing product. The case considered is the accurate alignment of an optical fibre relative to a telecommunication laser source. In the most demanding cases this requires alignment accuracies...

An improved in-plane thermal folded V-beam actuator for optical fibre alignment

Two-Dimensional Fiber Positioning and Clamping Device for Product-Internal Microassembly

In this paper, we present a microelectromechanical systems-based two-degrees-of-freedom positioning device combined with a clamping structure for positioning and constraining an optical fiber. The fiber position can be controlled in the two directions perpendicular to the fiber axis using two specifically designed wedges that can be accurately...

In-package MEMS-based thermal actuators for micro-assembly