SBIR Phase I: Air-coupled MEMS-based Ultrasound Transducer for Assessment of Tympanic Membrane Motion

SBIR 第一阶段：基于空气耦合 MEMS 的超声换能器，用于评估鼓膜运动

• 批准号: 1722228
• 负责人: Mark Moehring
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: OtoNexus Medical Technologies, Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2018-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1722228&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Air; coupled; MEMS

This SBIR Phase I project will focus on a novel medical ultrasound device for the accurate diagnosis of middle ear infections. The device uses a small transducer that transmits ultrasound energy into the ear canal to determine whether a middle ear infection is present, and whether an antibiotic is appropriate. The focus will be to design and optimize an air-coupled MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) ultrasound transducer. The device will be a cost-effective method to improve diagnoses and reduce antibiotics in a market in which 17.6M doctor visits per year are coded directly to middle ear infections in the U.S. Ear infections are the #1 indication for which antibiotics are prescribed for children and the #1 cause for surgery in childhood, costing more than $10B annually in the U.S. Accessing this market will require consistent device performance with low variability and rare failure, as well as the ability to perform manufacturing with a high yield.This SBIR Phase I project will seek to enable the development of the first known commercial medical product utilizing air-coupled (capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer) CMUT technology. CMUTs have been proposed for many applications, but very few have moved beyond the early research stage due to the high degree of technical difficulty and cost required to translate a research device into one that generates consistent transducer performance with low variability and rare failure rate. The work of this proposal facilitates the investigators? goal by establishing fast automated assessment of CMUT performance, both electrically and mechanically. The investigators will design and construct test systems to rapidly and automatically evaluate electromechanical and acoustical performance of CMUT designs. The electromechanical system automatically evaluates electrical impedance across frequency and bias voltage. The acoustical test system automatically evaluates pulse-echo directivity and sensitivity of a given CMUT, across bias voltage and pulsing parameters. The authors propose to use the two test systems to determine electromechanical tests which can be done in the foundry at the wafer level, which are predictive of acoustic performance. NSF funding is being sought to make this challenging but promising CMUT technology a commercial reality.

这个SBIR第一阶段项目将专注于一种新的医用超声设备，用于准确诊断中耳感染。该设备使用一个小型换能器，将超声波能量传输到耳道，以确定是否存在中耳感染，以及抗生素是否合适。重点将是设计和优化空气耦合MEMS(微电子机械系统)超声换能器。在美国，每年有1760万人次的医生就诊被直接编码为中耳感染，在这个市场上，这种设备将是提高诊断和减少抗生素的一种经济高效的方法。耳朵感染是儿童开抗生素的头号适应症，也是儿童手术的首要原因，在美国，每年花费超过100亿美元。进入这个市场将需要稳定的设备性能，变异性低，故障很少。这个SBIR第一阶段项目将致力于利用空气耦合(电容式微机械超声换能器)CMUT技术开发首个已知的商业医疗产品。CMUT已经被提出用于许多应用，但很少有超过早期研究阶段的应用，这是因为将研究设备转换为以低变异性和极少的故障率产生一致的换能器性能所需的技术难度和成本很高。这项提案的工作方便了调查人员吗？目标是建立对CMUT性能的快速自动化评估，包括电气和机械方面。研究人员将设计和建造测试系统，以快速和自动地评估CMUT设计的机电和声学性能。机电系统自动评估跨越频率的阻抗和偏置电压。声学测试系统自动评估给定CMUT的脉冲回波指向性和灵敏度，跨越偏置电压和脉冲参数。作者建议使用这两个测试系统来确定可以在晶片级别上在铸造厂进行的机电测试，这些测试可以预测声学性能。NSF正在寻求资金，以使这项具有挑战性但前景光明的CMUT技术成为商业现实。