Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) for therapeutic applications
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a noninvasive method to treat a variety of diseases. Most of the HIFU machines in clinic typically consist of a piezoelectric transducer array and an imaging system for temperature monitoring and anatomical location guidance. One of the limitations of piezoelectric transducers is self-heating, which requires cooling systems to protect both transducers and patients. Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) are another type of transducers fabricated with silicon micromachining. CMUTs are promising candidates as therapeutic transducers, as they experience a lot less self-heating compared to piezoelectric transducers. This dissertation mainly focuses on describing the design, simulation, fabrication, characterization, and experimental results of CMUTs for HIFU applications. Single-element transducers are fabricated using local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS)-wafer-bonding process. The measurement part compares the self-heating of a PZT and a CMUT, and discusses the charging issue of CMUTs. Geometric focusing using multiple single-element CMUTs is also demonstrated. The fabrication of 1-D CMUT arrays to enhance the output pressure for HIFU applications is discussed. Higher output pressure of a CMUT cell can be achieved by adding one extra fabrication step to the existing fabrication process. Two-dimensional transducer arrays are required for electronic focusing and beam steering. An 8-channel continuous wave (CW) excitation system is developed to drive a 2-D CMUT array. This 8-channel system minimizes the system complexity without significant loss of focusing capability, compared to a full system with hundreds to thousands of channels. The first successful 2-D CMUT array fabricated using the thick-buried-oxide (BOX) process is presented. The breakdown issue of the insulation layer observed in the test stage is investigated as well. Another type of 2-D CMUT array fabricated using the sacrificial-release process is also tested for HIFU applications. Using the 8-channel CW excitation system, the 2-D CMUT array has proven to be able to produce enough output pressure for thermal ablation. This dissertation presents the result of ex-vivo experiments, which created thermal lesions on bovine tissue using a CMUT array for the first time.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Yoon, Hyo-Seon |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Electrical Engineering. |
| Primary advisor | Khuri-Yakub, Butrus T, 1948- |
| Thesis advisor | Khuri-Yakub, Butrus T, 1948- |
| Thesis advisor | Arbabian, Amin |
| Thesis advisor | Pauly, Kim Butts (Kim Rosemary Butts) |
| Advisor | Arbabian, Amin |
| Advisor | Pauly, Kim Butts (Kim Rosemary Butts) |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Hyo-Seon Yoon. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Electrical Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Hyo-Seon Yoon
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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