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.