SBIR Phase I: Multifunctional materials for ultrasound diagnosis

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目的目标是多功能超材料，其声阻抗与组织相等，并针对固态触觉传感进行了优化。这些新开发的超材料的优化多功能性能包括增强的机械、声学和自我感知响应。该方法的创新之处在于建立了材料微结构的两个层次：(1)具有特定特征的光刻图案化的亚结构层；(2)由排列的纳米夹杂物链组成的亚结构元素。所提出的制造方法可以应用于广泛的聚合物体系。然而，这个项目的目标是适合于生物医学应用并与洁净室加工兼容的材料。在拟议的第一阶段研究工作中将开发和验证的关键制造步骤包括在聚合物光致抗蚀剂中混合纳米包裹体，旋转聚合物层，通过电场对准包裹体，以及通过光刻定义亚结构。所得材料的声学、机械和电活性将得到实验验证。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是促进超声筛查和医疗诊断的新方法。拟议材料的预期商业应用是用于触觉传感阵列中的声透明传感层，这种材料有可能在超声换能器前面工作，而不会对成像性能产生不利影响。这些新的触觉传感技术的主要近期影响将是在超声成像过程中接触压力反馈信号的可用性。这种触觉反馈将允许操作员纠正他/她的错误，并通过由缺乏经验的用户或远程操作诊断设备来实现远程医疗。这将提高超声作为诊断工具的准确性并扩大其用途。将超声成像和触觉传感相结合还有可能彻底改变乳腺癌和前列腺癌的无活检筛查，减少患者的不适，并降低医疗筛查的总体成本。最后，超声探头效率的全面提高将使高效和便携的超声仪器成为可能。这将改善世界各地的医疗筛查，特别是在低收入地区、小医院和护理地点环境中。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project targets multifunctional meta-materials having acoustic impedance equal to tissue and optimized for solid-state tactile sensing. Optimized multifunctional performance of these newly developed meta-materials includes enhanced mechanical, acoustic and self-sensing response. The innovation of the proposed approach is in building two hierarchical levels of the material microstructure: (1) a meta-structured layer which is photo-lithographically patterned with specified features and (2) meta-structural elements which are comprised of aligned chains of nano-inclusions. The proposed manufacturing approach can be applied to a wide range of polymeric systems. However, this project targets materials which are suitable for biomedical applications and are compatible with clean-room processing. Critical manufacturing steps which will be developed and verified during the proposed Phase I research efforts include mixing nano-inclusions in polymeric photoresist, spinning polymer layers, aligning inclusions by electric field, and photolithographically defining meta-structures. The acoustic, mechanical and electro-active properties of the resulting materials will be experimentally verified.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be the fostering of novel approaches in ultrasound screening and medical diagnosis. The intended commercial application of the proposed materials is for acoustically transparent sensing layers in tactile sensing arrays, where this material has the potential to operate in front of an ultrasound transducer without adversely affecting imaging performance. A primary near-term impact of these new tactile sensing technologies will be the availability of contact pressure feedback signals during the ultrasound imaging procedure. Such tactile feedback would allow the operator to correct his/her mistakes and enable telemedicine through operation of diagnosis equipment by inexperienced users or remotely. This will improve the accuracy and broaden the utility of ultrasound as a diagnostic tool. Combining ultrasound imaging and tactile sensing also has the potential to revolutionize biopsy-free screening of breast and prostate cancers, reducing discomfort to patients and lowering the overall cost of the medical screening. Finally, an overall increase in the efficiency of ultrasound probes will enable highly efficient and portable ultrasound instruments. This would improve medical screening worldwide, especially in low-income areas, in small hospitals, and in point-of-care settings.