Tekes Coskun, Zahorian Jaime, Gurun Gokce, Satir Sarp, Xu Toby, Hochman Michael, Degertekin F Levent
George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405, USA.
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2012;2012:3195-8. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2012.6346644.
An intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) catheter that can provide forward viewing volumetric ultrasound images would be an invaluable clinical tool for guiding interventions. Single chip integration of front-end electronics with capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) is highly desirable to reduce the interconnection complexity and enable miniaturization in IVUS catheters. For this purpose we use the monolithic CMUT-on-CMOS integration where CMUTs are fabricated directly on top of pre-processed CMOS wafers. This minimizes parasitic capacitances associated with connection lines. We have recently implemented a system design including all the required electronics using 0.35-µm CMOS process integrated with a 1.4-mm diameter CMUT array. In this study, we present the experimental volumetric imaging results from an ex-vivo chicken heart phantom. The imaging results demonstrate that the single-chip forward looking IVUS (FL-IVUS) system with monolithically integrated electronics has potential to visualize the front view of coronary arteries.
一种能够提供前视容积超声图像的血管内超声（IVUS）导管将成为指导介入治疗的宝贵临床工具。将前端电子器件与电容式微机械超声换能器（CMUT）进行单芯片集成，对于降低IVUS导管中的互连复杂性并实现其小型化非常有必要。为此，我们采用了CMUT直接在预处理的CMOS晶圆顶部制造的单片CMUT-on-CMOS集成工艺。这将与连接线相关的寄生电容降至最低。我们最近利用0.35-μm CMOS工艺与直径为1.4-mm的CMUT阵列集成，实现了一个包含所有所需电子器件的系统设计。在本研究中，我们展示了来自离体鸡心模型的实验性容积成像结果。成像结果表明，具有单片集成电子器件的单芯片前视IVUS（FL-IVUS）系统有潜力可视化冠状动脉的前视图。
