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Liu S, Yan M, Hu Z, Yuan X, Zhang Y, Zhang D. Tailoring the Microstructure and Porosity of Porous Piezoelectric Ceramics for Ultrasonic Transducer Application. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2024. [PMID: 39373135 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c11303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/08/2024]
Abstract
Porous piezoelectric ceramics and composites are advantageous for ultrasonic transducers due to their capability to decouple longitudinal and transverse modes, their improved voltage sensitivity, and their enhanced acoustic matching. However, the design and fabrication of porous piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers with excellent electromechanical properties are still challenging. In this work, porous lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics with an aligned pore structure were prepared using the freeze-cast technique, and the effect of porous structure and porosity on the electromechanical parameters was investigated. The introduction of an aligned pore structure is beneficial to enhance the electromechanical properties and reduce the acoustic impedance. A high d33 (∼530 pC/N), a higher kt (∼0.676), and a lower acoustic impedance (∼10.4 MRalys) were achieved in the porous PZT ceramic with the porosity of 44 vol %. The effect of porosity and pore structure on the decoupling degree of vibration modes and ferroelectric polarization was considered to correct the homogeneous medium model, which can quantify the relationship between the kt and porosity of the porous structure. A demonstration of a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer based on freeze-cast porous PZT ceramics was presented, which exhibits a -6 dB bandwidth of 52% and a theoretical axial resolution of 520 μm. This work therefore provides a potential alternative of piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers for nondestructive testing and imaging applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shengwen Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
| | - Mingyang Yan
- State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
- School of Integrated Circuits, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
| | - Zhitao Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
| | - Xi Yuan
- College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
| | - Yan Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
| | - Dou Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
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Liu Z, Zhang Z, Qin L. Design and fabrication of highly thermally conductive 1-1-3 piezoelectric composites. Heliyon 2024; 10:e31575. [PMID: 38831812 PMCID: PMC11145478 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31575] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2024] [Revised: 04/27/2024] [Accepted: 05/19/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024] Open
Abstract
1-3 piezoelectric composites have been widely used in transmitting transducers, medical devices, navigation, aerospace, etc. However, due to poor thermal conduction of inside piezoelectric composites, performance degradation and service life shortening of transmitting transducers are easily caused while working under high-power or continuously operated states. In this paper, a solution is provided by designing and creating highly efficient thermally conductive paths in 1-1-3 piezoelectric composite. This novel design resulted in two-fold increase in heat dissipation rate compared with traditional 1-3 piezoelectric composites, while maintaining high piezoelectric properties. Furthermore, we designed and fabricated an efficient heat dissipation transducer (EHDT) with the novel 1-1-3 piezoelectric composite as the core material, which can relief heat accumulation effectively compared with conventional transducers (CT). The EHDT can achieve three times more power output than the CT at the same temperature threshold of 90 °C.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhiyang Liu
- Beijing Key Laboratory for Sensors, Beijing Information Science & Technology University, Beijing, 100192, China
| | - Zhiwei Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory for Sensors, Beijing Information Science & Technology University, Beijing, 100192, China
- Key Laboratory of Modern Measurement and Control Technology, Ministry of Education, Beijing Information Science & Technology University, Beijing, 100192, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory for Optoelectronic Measurement Technology, Beijing Information Science & Technology University, Beijing, 100192, China
| | - Lei Qin
- Beijing Key Laboratory for Sensors, Beijing Information Science & Technology University, Beijing, 100192, China
- Key Laboratory of Modern Measurement and Control Technology, Ministry of Education, Beijing Information Science & Technology University, Beijing, 100192, China
- Beijing Key Laboratory for Optoelectronic Measurement Technology, Beijing Information Science & Technology University, Beijing, 100192, China
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Lei Z, Xu G, Liu J, Liu Y, Ji X. Micromachining of High-Quality PMN-PT/Epoxy 1-3 Composite for High-Frequency (>30 MHz) Ultrasonic Transducer Applications. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ULTRASONICS, FERROELECTRICS, AND FREQUENCY CONTROL 2023; 70:1563-1573. [PMID: 37773915 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2023.3320652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/01/2023]
Abstract
Fabricating PMN-PT composites, the core component of high-frequency (> 30 MHz) transducers, remains challenging due to their poor machinability and ultrasmall kerfs. This urgent problem is significantly impeding the development of PMN-PT ultrasonic transducers for use in clinical research, biomedical sciences, and nondestructive testing (NDT). In this study, high-quality PMN-0.3PT/epoxy 1-3 composites at 30 and 50 MHz were manufactured using a modified picosecond (1.5 ps) laser technique. Their performance was thoroughly analyzed, which was comparable to that with low-stress dry plasma etching. There were fewer microcracks around PMN-PT pillars. The minimum kerf was less than [Formula: see text], and the highest aspect ratio was larger than 7.5. The microdomain morphology and hysteresis loops of PMN-PT pillars further confirmed that composites still maintained excellent piezoelectric performance and suffered fewer damages during laser cutting. The characterization results exhibited a large electromechanical coupling (>0.77), a high dielectric constant (>1600), and a relatively low acoustic impedance (< 17 Mrayls). The ultrasonic transducers with center frequencies of 30 and 50 MHz were designed and prototyped to validate the performance of composites. The transducers showed broad bandwidth (>80%), high two-way insertion loss (IL) (>-23 dB), and imaging resolution superior to [Formula: see text]. Finally, the C-scan experiments of IC chips were also used to further illustrate the applicability of transducers. These encouraging results further demonstrated that ultrafast laser technology will bring more accessible and affordable methods for fabricating high-frequency PMN-PT composite transducers with excellent performance.
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Heng J, Li C, Chu T, Xu Y, Jian X. A Method for High-Frequency Mechanical Scanning Ultrasonic Flow Imaging with Motion Compensation. Diagnostics (Basel) 2023; 13:diagnostics13081467. [PMID: 37189567 DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics13081467] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Revised: 04/10/2023] [Accepted: 04/14/2023] [Indexed: 05/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Mechanical scanning with a single transducer is an alternative method for high-frequency ultrasound imaging, which is simple in structure, convenient to implement, and low in cost. However, traditional mechanical scanning ultrasonic imaging introduces additional Doppler shift due to the movement of the transducer, which brings a challenge for blood velocity measurement. An improved mechanical scanning system for high-frequency ultrasonic color Doppler flow imaging is developed in this paper. The mechanical scanning system has a scanning stroke range of 15 mm, a maximum scanning speed of 168 mm/s, and an imaging depth of 20 mm. Since the mechanical scanning of the system is not in uniform motion, motion compensation was applied to achieve high-precision imaging both in B-mode and Doppler mode. The experiment results show that the system imaging resolution can reach about 140 μm in B-mode imaging, the relative velocity error is less than 5% in color Doppler flow imaging at different flow rates, and the CNR of power Doppler flow imaging of this system is greater than 15 dB. The proposed mechanical scanning imaging system can achieve high-resolution structure imaging and color flow imaging, which can provide more diagnostic information for the practical diagnosis and broaden the application range of mechanical scanning ultrasound imaging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiaming Heng
- School of Biomedical Engineering (Suzhou), University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou 215000, China
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China
| | - Chenxi Li
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China
| | - Tianxiang Chu
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China
- School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
| | - Yiwen Xu
- School of Biomedical Engineering (Suzhou), University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou 215000, China
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China
| | - Xiaohua Jian
- School of Biomedical Engineering (Suzhou), University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou 215000, China
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China
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Xu J, Wang N, Chu T, Yang B, Jian X, Cui Y. A High-Frequency Mechanical Scanning Ultrasound Imaging System. BIOSENSORS 2022; 13:bios13010032. [PMID: 36671867 PMCID: PMC9855571 DOI: 10.3390/bios13010032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Revised: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
High-frequency ultrasound has developed rapidly in clinical fields such as cardiovascular, ophthalmology, and skin with its high imaging resolution. However, the development of multi-elements high-frequency ultrasonic transducers and multi-channel high-frequency ultrasound imaging systems is extremely challenging. Here, a high-frequency ultrasound imaging system based on mechanical scanning was proposed in this paper. It adopts the method of reciprocating feed mechanism, which can achieve reciprocating scanning in the 14 mm range at 168 mm/s with a small 60 MHz transducer. A single-channel high-frequency ultrasonic imaging system consisting of the transmitting module, analog front end, acquisition module, and FPGA control module was developed. To overcome the non-uniformity of mechanical scanning, the ultrasound images are compensated according to the motion trajectory. The wire target and ex vivo tissue experiments have shown that the system can obtain an imaging resolution of 51 μm, imaging depth of 8 mm, and imaging speed of 12 fps. This high-frequency mechanical scanning ultrasound imaging system has the characteristics of simple structure, high-frequency, real-time, and good imaging performance, which can meet the clinical needs of high-resolution ultrasound images.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jie Xu
- Academy for Engineering and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
| | - Ninghao Wang
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China
- School of Biomedical Engineering (Suzhou), Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou 215163, China
| | - Tianxiang Chu
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China
- School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
| | - Bingqian Yang
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China
- School of Biomedical Engineering (Suzhou), Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou 215163, China
| | - Xiaohua Jian
- Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215163, China
- School of Biomedical Engineering (Suzhou), Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou 215163, China
| | - Yaoyao Cui
- Academy for Engineering and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
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Wang N, Li X, Heng J, Xie X, Han Z, Cui Y, Jian X. High-Frequency Endoscopic Ultrasound Imaging With Phase-Corrected-and-Sum and Coherence Factor Weighting. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ULTRASONICS, FERROELECTRICS, AND FREQUENCY CONTROL 2022; 69:1881-1888. [PMID: 35020594 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2022.3142250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
High-frequency endoscopic ultrasound (HFEUS) imaging is an important tool commonly used in clinical practice for imaging hollow organs. The virtual source synthetic aperture (VSSA) method is effective in improving the imaging quality of HFEUS. However, interference from the motor control unit severely affects the accuracy of the conventional delay and sum (DAS) method, thus compromising the effectiveness of VSSA. In this article, a new computational method based on phase correction was proposed to overcome these shortcomings, which is named phase-corrected-and-sum (PCAS). Meanwhile, the parameters of coherence factor weighting (CFW) can be obtained from the correlation coefficient of the superimposed signals to further increase the imaging quality. Three kinds of imaging experiments were designed to evaluate the proposed method. Compared with the conventional method, the results show that the PCAS-CFW method improves the lateral resolution by about 10% and the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) by about 44%. Therefore, this proposed method is capable of significantly improving HFEUS image quality, and this method can be easily integrated into current HFEUS imaging systems, showing great potential for clinical applications.
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Collins GC, Brumfiel TA, Bercu ZL, Desai JP, Lindsey BD. Dual-Resonance (16/32 MHz) Piezoelectric Transducer With a Single Electrical Connection for Forward-Viewing Robotic Guidewire. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ULTRASONICS, FERROELECTRICS, AND FREQUENCY CONTROL 2022; 69:1428-1441. [PMID: 35143395 PMCID: PMC9013008 DOI: 10.1109/tuffc.2022.3150746] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects more than 200 million people globally. Minimally invasive endovascular procedures can provide relief and salvage limbs while reducing injury rates and recovery times. Unfortunately, when a calcified chronic total occlusion is encountered, ~25% of endovascular procedures fail due to the inability to advance a guidewire using the view provided by fluoroscopy. To enable a sub-millimeter, robotically steerable guidewire to cross these occlusions, a novel single-element, dual-band transducer is developed that provides simultaneous multifrequency, forward-viewing imaging with high penetration depth and high spatial resolution while requiring only a single electrical connection. The design, fabrication, and acoustic characterization of this device are described, and proof-of-concept imaging is demonstrated in an ex vivo porcine artery after integration with a robotically steered guidewire. Measured center frequencies of the developed transducer were 16 and 32 MHz, with -6 dB fractional bandwidths of 73% and 23%, respectively. When imaging a 0.2-mm wire target at a depth of 5 mm, measured -6 dB target widths were 0.498 ± 0.02 and 0.268 ± 0.01 mm for images formed at 16 and 32 MHz, respectively. Measured SNR values were 33.3 and 21.3 dB, respectively. The 3-D images of the ex vivo artery demonstrate high penetration for visualizing vessel morphology at 16 MHz and ability to resolve small features close to the transducer at 32 MHz. Using images acquired simultaneously at both frequencies as part of an integrated forward-viewing, guidewire-based imaging system, an interventionalist could visualize the best path for advancing the guidewire to improve outcomes for patients with PAD.
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Peng C, Wu H, Kim S, Dai X, Jiang X. Recent Advances in Transducers for Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) Imaging. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2021; 21:3540. [PMID: 34069613 PMCID: PMC8160965 DOI: 10.3390/s21103540] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Revised: 05/11/2021] [Accepted: 05/17/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
As a well-known medical imaging methodology, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging plays a critical role in diagnosis, treatment guidance and post-treatment assessment of coronary artery diseases. By cannulating a miniature ultrasound transducer mounted catheter into an artery, the vessel lumen opening, vessel wall morphology and other associated blood and vessel properties can be precisely assessed in IVUS imaging. Ultrasound transducer, as the key component of an IVUS system, is critical in determining the IVUS imaging performance. In recent years, a wide range of achievements in ultrasound transducers have been reported for IVUS imaging applications. Herein, a comprehensive review is given on recent advances in ultrasound transducers for IVUS imaging. Firstly, a fundamental understanding of IVUS imaging principle, evaluation parameters and IVUS catheter are summarized. Secondly, three different types of ultrasound transducers (piezoelectric ultrasound transducer, piezoelectric micromachined ultrasound transducer and capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer) for IVUS imaging are presented. Particularly, the recent advances in piezoelectric ultrasound transducer for IVUS imaging are extensively examined according to their different working mechanisms, configurations and materials adopted. Thirdly, IVUS-based multimodality intravascular imaging of atherosclerotic plaque is discussed. Finally, summary and perspectives on the future studies are highlighted for IVUS imaging applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chang Peng
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; (C.P.); (H.W.)
| | - Huaiyu Wu
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; (C.P.); (H.W.)
| | | | - Xuming Dai
- Department of Cardiology, New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital, Flushing, NY 11355, USA;
| | - Xiaoning Jiang
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA; (C.P.); (H.W.)
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