Abstract
Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs) are MEMS transducers fabricated on silicon that have reached technological maturity, representing today a valid alternative to piezoelectric transducers in medical ultrasound imaging applications, offering larger bandwidth and better thermal efficiency. The growing interest for this new technology is based in the increased compatibility with 3D electronics integration methods that allow integrating, on the same chip, the transducers and the electronics, thereby enabling the realization of high-performance and low-cost devices. This paper summarizes the research activity carried out at the Acoustoelectronics Laboratory (ACULAB) of Roma Tre University on the integration of CMUTs and analog front-end electronics in ultrasound medical imaging probes for volumetric imaging applications.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. Pappalardo, G. Caliano, A.S. Savoia, A. Caronti, Micromachined ultrasonic transducers, in Piezoelectric and Acoustic Materials for Transducer Applications, 2008, pp. 453–478
A. Caronti, G. Caliano, R. Carotenuto, A. Savoia, M. Pappalardo, E. Cianci, V. Foglietti, Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) arrays for medical imaging. Microelectron. J. 37, 770–777 (2006)
A. Bagolini, A.S. Savoia, A. Picciotto, M. Boscardin, P. Bellutti, N. Lamberti, G. Caliano, PECVD low stress silicon nitride analysis and optimization for the fabrication of CMUT devices. J. Micromech. Microeng. 25 (2015)
A. Caronti, A. Coppa, A. Savoia, C. Longo, P. Gatta, B. Mauti, A. Corbo, B. Calabrese, G. Bollino, A. Paz, G. Caliano, M. Pappalardo, Curvilinear capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array fabricated using a reverse process, in Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrason. Symposium, 2008, pp. 2092–2095
A. Iula, A. Savoia, G. Caliano, Capacitive micro-fabricated ultrasonic transducers for biometric applications. Microelectron. Eng. 88, 2278–2280 (2011)
A. Savoia, G. Caliano, A. Iula, C. Longo, A. Caronti, R. Carotenuto, M. Pappalardo, Design and fabrication of a cMUT probe for ultrasound imaging of fingerprints, in Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrason. Symposium, 2010, pp. 1877–1880
A. Savoia, G. Caliano, R. Carotenuto, C. Longo, P. Gatta, A. Caronti, E. Cianci, V. Foglietti, M. Pappalardo, Enhanced echographic images obtained improving the membrane structural layer of the cMUT probe, in Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrason. Symposium, 2005, pp. 1960–1963
A. Savoia, G. Caliano, B. Mauti, M. Pappalardo, Performance optimization of a high frequency CMUT probe for medical imaging, in Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrason. Symposium, 2011, pp. 600–603
A.S. Savoia, G. Caliano, M. Pappalardo, A CMUT probe for medical ultrasonography: from microfabrication to system integration. IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 59, 1127–1138 (2012)
G. Matrone, A. Savoia, M. Terenzi, G. Caliano, F. Quaglia, G. Magenes, A volumetric CMUT-based ultrasound imaging system simulator with integrated reception and μ-beamforming electronics models. IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 61, 792–804 (2014)
M. Sautto, D. Leone, A. Savoia, D. Ghisu, F. Quaglia, G. Caliano, A. Mazzanti, A CMUT transceiver front-end with 100-V TX driver and 1-mW low-noise capacitive feedback RX amplifier in BCD-SOI technology, in European Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2014, pp. 407–410
A.S. Savoia, G. Caliano, A. Mazzanti, M. Sautto, A.D. Leone, D.U. Ghisu, F. Quaglia, An ultra-low-power fully integrated ultrasound imaging CMUT transceiver featuring a high-voltage unipolar pulser and a low-noise charge amplifier, in Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrason. Symposium, 2014, pp. 2568–2571
A.S. Savoia, G. Scaglione, G. Caliano, A. Mazzanti, M. Sautto, F. Quaglia, Second-harmonic reduction in CMUTs using unipolar pulsers, in Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrason. Symposium, IUS 2015, 2015
A. Ramalli, E. Boni, A.S. Savoia, P. Tortoli, Density-tapered spiral arrays for ultrasound 3-D imaging. IEEE Trans. Ultrason. Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 62, 1580–1588 (2015)
A. Savoia, V. Bavaro, G. Caliano, A. Caronti, R. Carotenuto, P. Gatta, C. Longo, M. Pappalardo, Crisscross 2D cMUT array: beamforming strategy and synthetic 3D imaging results, in Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrason. Symposium, 2007, pp. 1514–1517
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Savoia, A.S., Caliano, G. (2018). MEMS-Based Transducers (CMUT) and Integrated Electronics for Medical Ultrasound Imaging. In: Andò, B., Baldini, F., Di Natale, C., Marrazza, G., Siciliano, P. (eds) Sensors. CNS 2016. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 431. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55077-0_53
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55077-0_53
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-55076-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-55077-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)