title: Medical imaging using capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer arrays.
abstract: We are investigating the use of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (cMUT's) for use in medical imaging. We propose an ultrasound probe architecture designed to provide volumetric ultrasound imaging from within an endoscope channel. A complete automated experimental system has been implemented for testing the imaging performance of cMUT arrays. This PC-based system includes custom-designed circuit boards, a software interface, and resolution test phantoms. We have already fabricated 1D and 2D cMUT arrays, and tested the pulse-echo imaging characteristics of 1D arrays. Beamforming and image formation algorithms that aim to reduce the complexity of data acquisition hardware are tested via numerical simulations and using real data acquired from our system.
authors.affiliation: Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA. jeremyj@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Oralkan
authors.forename: Utkan
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Demirci
authors.forename: Sanli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ergun
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karaman
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Khuri-Yakub