PolyCMUTs: a new ultrasound transducer technology for medical imaging

PolyCMUT：一种用于医学成像的新型超声换能器技术

• 批准号: 561566-2021
• 负责人: Rohling, RobertRN
• 金额: $ 12.75万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Idea to Innovation
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=751948
• 关键词: PolyCMUTs; new; ultrasound; transducer; technology

The ultrasound field is being disrupted by the advent of a new transducer technology. The traditional transducer technology is based on the piezoelectric principle to convert electricity into ultrasound and vice versa. This is a mature technology that has enabled many clinical applications for ultrasound making it the most frequently used medical imaging modality. Unfortunately, piezoelectric-based transducers are limited by the nature of these piezoelectric "crystals" meaning that even the newest smart-phone connected transducers are still hand-held, expensive and have low-volume manufacturing. Moreover, they need experts to perform manual operation and interpretation. The disruption is coming from CMUTs (Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers) that replace the crystals with tiny microfabricated drums that are integrated tightly and made together with electronics on chips. CMUTs are disruptive because they offer huge advantages in cost through high-volume manufacturing but also advantages in quality and the ability to create affordable transducers suitable for 3D imaging. At UBC, we invented a highly innovative CMUT made from soft polymers, hence called polyCMUT. What is exciting is that our polyCMUTs have all these advantages plus they can be flexible, large, transparent, and an even better cost-performance ratio by using agile manufacturing facilities. These unique capabilities will be used in our first beachhead product: a new 3D imaging transducer that is both affordable and suitable for detecting many diseases and disorders. Adding to the disruption is the advent of AI to enhance the operation, analysis and decision making. The combination of cloud-connected polyCMUTs and AI can also open up ultrasound to new users and new applications. One long-term goal is improving breast cancer detection. We propose to effectively double the imaging capability of breast cancer imaging by adding our polyCMUT imaging to mammography within the same examination. This would improve cancer detection and patient outcomes. In general, the expanded use of ultrasound using our polyCMUT products will have an impact on the detection of multiple diseases and on the lives of many Canadians.

超声领域正在被一种新的换能器技术的出现所颠覆。传统的换能器技术是基于压电原理将电转换为超声，反之亦然。这是一项成熟的技术，已使超声成为最常用的医学成像模式的许多临床应用。不幸的是，基于压电的传感器受到这些压电“晶体”的性质的限制，这意味着即使是最新的智能手机连接的传感器仍然是手持式的，昂贵的，并且具有小批量的制造。此外，他们需要专家进行人工操作和解释。这种破坏来自CMUT（电容式微机械超声换能器），它用微小的微加工鼓代替晶体，这些鼓与芯片上的电子器件紧密集成在一起。CMUT是颠覆性的，因为它们通过大批量制造提供了巨大的成本优势，而且在质量和创建适用于3D成像的负担得起的换能器的能力方面也具有优势。在UBC，我们发明了一种由软聚合物制成的高度创新的CMUT，因此称为polyCMUT。令人兴奋的是，我们的polyCMUT具有所有这些优势，而且它们可以灵活，大型，透明，并且通过使用敏捷制造设施实现更好的性价比。这些独特的功能将用于我们的第一个滩头产品：一种新的3D成像传感器，既经济实惠，又适合检测许多疾病和病症。除了破坏之外，人工智能的出现还增强了运营，分析和决策。云连接polyCMUT和AI的结合也可以为新用户和新应用打开超声。一个长期目标是改善乳腺癌检测。我们建议通过在同一检查中将我们的polyCMUT成像添加到乳腺X射线摄影术中，有效地将乳腺癌成像的成像能力提高一倍。这将改善癌症检测和患者预后。总的来说，使用我们的polyCMUT产品扩大超声的使用将对多种疾病的检测和许多加拿大人的生活产生影响。