I-Corps: high performance ultrasound transducer driving systems

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是聚焦超声技术的发展。这项技术可以消除传统手术和侵入性治疗并发症。这项技术还可以以具有竞争力的价位制造，使其更容易获得，特别是低收入社区的诊所。这项技术还消除了市场上一些主要的性能障碍。建议的小型化超声解决方案可以部署在许多便携式应用中，如超声脑深部刺激器，它消除了当前治疗的并发症和成本，并可用于其他新兴应用，如心理健康治疗，而无需打开颅骨并将电极植入患者的大脑。该I-Corps项目基于超声换能器驱动系统的开发。多通道相控阵和单通道功率模块是超声换能器驱动器，广泛应用于医疗和非医疗领域。这些驱动器的价格非常高，而且它们的性能也存在差异。这一创新通过一些性能突破降低了这些驱动器的成本，例如产生有益于医疗和非医疗应用的正弦或无谐波输出，以及删除每个换能器的匹配网络并提高每个通道的功率限制。这项技术可以部署在聚焦超声医疗应用中，利用这些无害的声波非侵入性地治愈各种疾病。该技术还可以部署在其他非医疗应用中，在这些应用中，需要经济和高性能的驱动器。这项技术应该被微型化，用非侵入性超声波版本取代目前的严重侵入性脑深部刺激，用于不同的神经疾病，如癫痫和帕金森。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of focused ultrasound technology. This technology could eliminate traditional surgeries and invasive therapy complications. This technology can also be made at a competitive price point allowing it to be more accessible, especially to clinics in low-income communities. This technology also removes some of the major performance barriers in the market. A proposed miniaturized ultrasound solution can be deployed in numerous portable applications, such as ultrasonic deep brain stimulator, which eliminates complications and cost of current treatments, and can be used in other emerging applications such as mental health treatments, without opening the skull and implanting electrodes into a patient's brain.This I-Corps project is based on the development of an ultrasound transducer drive system. Multichannel phased arrays and single channel power modules are ultrasound transducer drivers, which are used in a wide range of medical and non-medical applications. These drivers are very high in price, and they have performance variances. This innovation reduces the cost of these drivers with some performance breakthroughs, such as generation of sine or harmonic-free outputs beneficial for both medical and nonmedical applications, as well as the removal of the matching networks per transducer and providing an increase in the power limitations of each channel. This technology can be deployed in focused ultrasound medical applications to cure a wide range of conditions non-invasively, with these harmless soundwaves. The technology can also be deployed in other non-medical applications, where economical and high-performance drivers are necessary. The technology is supposed to be miniaturized to replace current severely invasive deep brain stimulation with non-invasive ultrasound version used for different neurologic conditions, such as Epilepsy and Parkinson.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.