High resolution biomedical imaging using ultrasonic metamaterials

使用超声波超材料的高分辨率生物医学成像

• 批准号: EP/N034163/1
• 负责人: David Hutchins
• 金额: $ 49.84万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FN034163%2F1
• 关键词: resolution; biomedical; imaging; using; ultrasonic

Ultrasound biomedical imaging is used routinely for the diagnosis of many diseases. It has the ability show detailed structures of soft tissues, and has the advantage over other imaging methods, such as CT or MRI imaging, of being relatively cheap and portable. It is thus a good method for many diagnostic clinical settings. The current resolution of ultrasonic imaging in the body is determined by various factors, including transducer design, frequency of operation, and depth of penetration required. However, there is a fundamental limit to the imaging performance of such systems - namely the diffraction limit. This sets the minimum spot size that a focused beam can achieve by conventional means, even in a perfect propagation medium. The present proposal aims to improve this by the use of metamaterials, which will be incorporated within an ultrasonic transducer system. These exotic materials are, in fact, made up of a complicated geometry, where the internal structure contains many sub-wavelength features. These can act together to make the material behave in a way that is totally different from normal structures. The result is that they can, for example, have a negative refractive index, noting that for conventional materials the value is always positive. Thus, a plate with flat parallel sides can focus ultrasound, provided it is designed correctly.The research will identify the best designs that can be used at biomedical ultrasound frequencies, which in the present case will be 1-5 MHz. To date, acoustic metamaterials have been designed typically for much lower frequency, and for use in air. In this project, novel new designs are proposed, which will first be modelled theoretically, and then constructed using high-resolution additive manufacturing (3D printing) techniques. Once built, the new structures will be tested with biomedical ultrasound transducers, and their performance in imaging systems determined. In this way, it is hoped to produce a new approach to diagnostic ultrasound, with resolution enhancement that could be useful for cardiovascular disease, prostate and skin cancer diagnosis.

超声生物医学成像通常用于许多疾病的诊断。它具有显示软组织详细结构的能力，并且具有相对便宜和便携的其他成像方法（例如CT或MRI成像）的优点。因此，它是许多诊断临床设置的好方法。目前体内超声成像的分辨率由各种因素决定，包括换能器设计、工作频率和所需的穿透深度。然而，这种系统的成像性能存在基本限制-即衍射极限。这设定了聚焦光束可以通过常规手段实现的最小光斑尺寸，即使在完美的传播介质中。本提案旨在通过使用超材料来改善这一点，超材料将被并入超声换能器系统中。事实上，这些奇特的材料是由复杂的几何形状组成的，其内部结构包含许多亚波长特征。它们可以共同作用，使材料以与正常结构完全不同的方式表现。结果是，它们可以具有负折射率，注意到对于传统材料，该值总是正值。因此，如果设计正确，具有平坦平行侧面的板可以聚焦超声。该研究将确定可用于生物医学超声频率的最佳设计，目前的情况是1-5 MHz。迄今为止，声学超材料通常被设计用于低得多的频率，并且用于空气中。在该项目中，提出了新颖的新设计，首先从理论上建模，然后使用高分辨率增材制造（3D打印）技术构建。一旦建成，新结构将用生物医学超声换能器进行测试，并确定其在成像系统中的性能。通过这种方式，人们希望产生一种新的诊断超声方法，其分辨率增强可用于心血管疾病，前列腺癌和皮肤癌的诊断。

项目成果

Holey-structured tungsten metamaterials for broadband ultrasonic sub-wavelength imaging in water.

• DOI: 10.1121/10.0005483
• 发表时间: 2021-07
• 期刊: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
• 作者: Lorenzo Astolfi;D. Hutchins;P. Thomas;R. Watson;Luzhen Nie;S. Freear;A. Clare;M. Ricci;S. Laur

Negative refraction in conventional and additively manufactured phononic crystals

传统和增材制造的声子晶体中的负折射

• DOI: 10.1109/ultsym.2019.8926236
• 发表时间: 2019
• 作者: Astolfi L

Trapped air metamaterials for ultrasonic sub-wavelength imaging in water

用于水中超声亚波长成像的截留空气超材料

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2002.02212
• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Laureti S

A Metallic Additively Manufactured Metamaterial for Enhanced Monitoring of Acoustic Cavitation-Based Therapeutic Ultrasound

用于增强声空化治疗性超声监测的金属增材制造超材料

• DOI: 10.1002/adem.202100972
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Advanced Engineering Materials
• 影响因子: 3.6
• 作者: Nie L

High-resolution acoustic imaging at low frequencies using 3D-printed metamaterials

• DOI: 10.1063/1.4968606
• 发表时间: 2016-12-01
• 期刊: AIP ADVANCES
• 影响因子: 1.6
• 作者: Laureti, S.;Hutchins, D. A.;Ricci, M.
• 通讯作者: Ricci, M.