Medical imaging using capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer arrays

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 ID and 2D cMUT arrays, and tested the pulse-echo imaging characteristics of ID 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. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.