BIOGRAPHY

Highly Responsive pMUTs [BPN743]
Ultrasonics has been realized as a nondestructive measurement method for a variety of applications, such as medical imaging, healthcare monitoring, structural testing, range finding, and motion sensing. Furthermore, high intensity ultrasound can be used in therapeutic treatments, such as lithotripsy for kidney stone comminution, hyperthermia for cancer therapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for laparoscopic surgery, and transcranial sonothrombolysis for brain stroke treatment. MEMS ultrasonic transducers are known to have several pronounced advantages over the conventional ultrasound devices, namely higher resolution, higher bandwidth, and lower power consumption. The main purpose of this project is to develop new architectures of Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (pMUT) with higher electro-mechano-acoustical energy efficiency and increased sensitivity while using CMOS-compatible fabrication technology, making them suitable for battery-powered handheld devices. The specific focus is on increasing the electromechanical coupling, bandwidth, and acoustic pressure output in aims of creating power- efficient hand-held medical devices for diagnosis/therapy.