Design of an ultrasonic micro-array for near field sensing during retinal microsurgery.
A method for obtaining the optimal and specific sensor parameters for a tool-tip mountable ultrasonic transducer micro-array is presented. The ultrasonic transducer array sensor parameters, such as frequency of operation, element size, inter-element spacing, number of elements and transducer geometry are obtained using a quadratic programming method to obtain a maximum directivity while being constrained to a total array size of 4 mm2 and the required resolution for retinal imaging. The technique is used to design a uniformly spaced NxN transducer array that is capable of resolving structures in the retina that are as small as 2 microm from a distance of 100 microm. The resultant 37x37 array of 16 microm transducers with 26 microm spacing will be realized as a Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (CMUT) array and used for imaging and robotic guidance during retinal microsurgery.
Clarke
Clyde
C
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Morgan State Univ., Baltimore, MD, USA. clyde.clarke@gmail.com
Etienne-Cummings
Ralph
R
D000465:Algorithms; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012160:Retina / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D012164:Retinal Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D012172:Retinaldehyde; D012371:Robotics; D012984:Software; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative; D014159:Transducers; D014465:Ultrasonics; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
D012172:Retinaldehyde