• F Levent Degertekin, Rasim O Guldiken, and Mustafa Karaman.
• G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA. levent.degertekin@me.gatech.edu
• IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control. 2006 Feb 1;53(2):474-82.

AbstractIn this study, a 64-element, 1.15-mm diameter annular-ring capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array was characterized and used for forward-looking intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging tests. The array was manufactured using low-temperature processes suitable for CMOS electronics integration on a single chip. The measured radiation pattern of a 43 X 140-microm2 array element depicts a 40 degrees view angle for forward-looking imaging around a 15-MHz center frequency in agreement with theoretical models. Pulse-echo measurements show a -10-dB fractional bandwidth of 104% around 17 MHz for wire targets 2.5 mm away from the array in vegetable oil. For imaging and SNR measurements, RF A-scan data sets from various targets were collected using an interconnect scheme forming a 32-element array configuration. An experimental point spread function was obtained and compared with simulated and theoretical array responses, showing good agreement. Therefore, this study demonstrates that annular-ring CMUT arrays fabricated with CMOS-compatible processes are capable of forward-looking IVUS imaging, and the developed modeling tools can be used to design improved IVUS imaging arrays.

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