An Ultrasound Matrix Transducer for High-Frame-Rate 3-D Intra-cardiac Echocardiography

Objective: Described here is the development of an ultrasound matrix transducer prototype for high-frame-rate 3-D intra-cardiac echocardiography. Methods: The matrix array consists of 16 × 18 lead zirconate titanate elements with a pitch of 160 µm × 160 µm built on top of an application-specific integrated circuit that generates transmission...

Acoustic streaming-based calibration of ultrasound transducers

The accurate determination of the transfer function of ultrasound transducers is important for their design and operational performance. However, conventional methods for quantifying the transfer function, such as hydrophone measurements, radiation force balance, and pulse-echo measurements, are costly and complex due to specialized equipment...

Comparison of Three Linear Digital Filters Applied to Improve the Quality of the Measured Acoustic Field

The measurement of acoustic fields generated by ultrasonic transducers is important for determining the focal length, lateral resolution, and amplitudes of the lateral and grating lobes. The acoustic field is commonly characterized by a set of scans using a needle hydrophone. The output of the hydrophone can be connected to an analog filter to...

Automated Characterization of Matrix Transducer Arrays using the Verasonics Imaging System

Over the past decades, ultrasound imaging has made considerable progress based on the advancement of imaging systems as well as transducer technology. With the need for advanced transducer arrays with complex designs and technical requirements, there is also a need for suitable tools to characterize such transducers. However, despite the...

A Tiled Ultrasound Matrix Transducer for Volumetric Imaging of the Carotid Artery

High frame rate three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound imaging would offer excellent possibilities for the accurate assessment of carotid artery diseases. This calls for a matrix transducer with a large aperture and a vast number of elements. Such a matrix transducer should be interfaced with an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for...

Design of an ultrasound transceiver asic with a switching-artifact reduction technique for 3D carotid artery imaging

This paper presents an ultrasound transceiver application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) directly integrated with an array of 12 × 80 piezoelectric transducer elements to enable next-generation ultrasound probes for 3D carotid artery imaging. The ASIC, implemented in a 0.18 µm high-voltage Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (HV BCD) process, adopted a...

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Subdicing on an Ultrasound Matrix Transducer

Over the past decades, real-time three-dimensional (3D) medical ultrasound has attracted much attention since it enables clinicians to diagnose more accurately. This calls for ultrasound matrix transducers with a large number of elements, which can be interfaced with an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for data reduction. An...