Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Subdicing on an Ultrasound Matrix Transducer
Djalma Dos Santos (TU Delft - ImPhys/Medical Imaging)
Fabian Fool (TU Delft - ImPhys/Medical Imaging)
Taehoon Kim (Student TU Delft)
EC Noothout (TU Delft - ImPhys/Medical Imaging)
HJ Vos (TU Delft - ImPhys/Medical Imaging, Erasmus MC)
Johan G. Bosch (Erasmus MC)
M. A P Pertijs (TU Delft - Electronic Instrumentation)
Martin Verweij (Erasmus MC, TU Delft - ImPhys/Medical Imaging)
Nico de Jong (Erasmus MC, TU Delft - ImPhys/Medical Imaging)
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Abstract
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 important aspect of the design of such a transducer is the geometry of each element, since it affects the mode of vibration and, consequently, the efficiency of the transducer. In this paper, we experimentally investigate the effect of subdicing on a piezoelectric (PZT) transducer. We fabricate and acoustically characterize a prototype PZT matrix transducer built on top of ASICs. The prototype transducer contains subdiced and non-subdiced elements, whose performance can be directly compared under the same conditions. Measurement results show that subdiced elements have a better performance compared to non-subdiced ones. Subdicing increases the peak pressure by 25%, raises the bandwidth by 10% and reduces the ringing time by 25%.