WO2015028945A2 - Commande de fréquence variable de transducteur cmut à mode effondré - Google Patents

Commande de fréquence variable de transducteur cmut à mode effondré Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2015028945A2
WO2015028945A2 PCT/IB2014/064079 IB2014064079W WO2015028945A2 WO 2015028945 A2 WO2015028945 A2 WO 2015028945A2 IB 2014064079 W IB2014064079 W IB 2014064079W WO 2015028945 A2 WO2015028945 A2 WO 2015028945A2
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Prior art keywords
cmut
bias voltage
cell
membrane
imaging system
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Application number
PCT/IB2014/064079
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English (en)
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WO2015028945A3 (fr
Inventor
Richard Edward DAVIDSEN
Junho Song
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Koninklijke Philips N.V.
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Publication of WO2015028945A2 publication Critical patent/WO2015028945A2/fr
Publication of WO2015028945A3 publication Critical patent/WO2015028945A3/fr

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B06—GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS IN GENERAL
    • B06B—METHODS OR APPARATUS FOR GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS OF INFRASONIC, SONIC, OR ULTRASONIC FREQUENCY, e.g. FOR PERFORMING MECHANICAL WORK IN GENERAL
    • B06B1/00—Methods or apparatus for generating mechanical vibrations of infrasonic, sonic, or ultrasonic frequency
    • B06B1/02—Methods or apparatus for generating mechanical vibrations of infrasonic, sonic, or ultrasonic frequency making use of electrical energy
    • B06B1/0292—Electrostatic transducers, e.g. electret-type
    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
    • A61B—DIAGNOSIS; SURGERY; IDENTIFICATION
    • A61B8/00—Diagnosis using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
    • A61B8/44—Constructional features of the ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic diagnostic device
    • A61B8/4483—Constructional features of the ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic diagnostic device characterised by features of the ultrasound transducer
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B06—GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS IN GENERAL
    • B06B—METHODS OR APPARATUS FOR GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS OF INFRASONIC, SONIC, OR ULTRASONIC FREQUENCY, e.g. FOR PERFORMING MECHANICAL WORK IN GENERAL
    • B06B1/00—Methods or apparatus for generating mechanical vibrations of infrasonic, sonic, or ultrasonic frequency
    • B06B1/02—Methods or apparatus for generating mechanical vibrations of infrasonic, sonic, or ultrasonic frequency making use of electrical energy
    • B06B1/0207—Driving circuits
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B06—GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS IN GENERAL
    • B06B—METHODS OR APPARATUS FOR GENERATING OR TRANSMITTING MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS OF INFRASONIC, SONIC, OR ULTRASONIC FREQUENCY, e.g. FOR PERFORMING MECHANICAL WORK IN GENERAL
    • B06B2201/00—Indexing scheme associated with B06B1/0207 for details covered by B06B1/0207 but not provided for in any of its subgroups
    • B06B2201/70—Specific application
    • B06B2201/76—Medical, dental

Definitions

  • This invention relates to medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging systems and, in particular, to collapsed mode CMUT transducers for ultrasound systems with controllable frequency response.
  • the ultrasonic transducers used for medical imaging have numerous characteristics which lead to the production of high quality diagnostic images.
  • ASICs application-specific integrated circuits
  • CMUT micromachined ultrasonic transducers or MUTs, the preferred form being the CMUT .
  • CMUT transducers are tiny diaphragm-like devices with electrodes that convert the sound vibration of a received ultrasound signal into a modulated
  • CMUTs complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
  • the capacitive charge applied to the electrodes is modulated to vibrate the diaphragm of the device and thereby transmit a sound wave. Since these devices are manufactured by semiconductor processes the devices generally have dimensions in the 10-200 micron range, but can range up to device diameters of 300-500 microns.
  • Many such individual CMUTs can be connected together and operated in unison as a single transducer element. For example, four to sixteen CMUTs can be coupled together to function in unison as a single transducer element.
  • a typical 2D transducer array can have 2000-3000 piezoelectric transducer elements. When fabricated as a CMUT array, over one million CMUT cells will be used. Surprisingly, early results have indicated that the yields on semiconductor fab CMUT arrays of this size should be markedly improved over the yields for PZT arrays of several thousand
  • CMUTs are conventionally produced with an electrode-bearing membrane or diaphragm suspended over a substrate base carrying an opposing electrode.
  • a typical CMUT transducer cell 110 is shown in cross-section.
  • the CMUT transducer cell 110 is fabricated along with a plurality of similar adjacent cells on a substrate 112 such as silicon.
  • a diaphragm or membrane 114 which may be made of silicon nitride is supported above the substrate by an insulating support 116 which may be made of silicon oxide or silicon nitride.
  • the cavity 118 between the membrane and the substrate may be air or gas-filled or wholly or partially evacuated.
  • a conductive film or layer 120 such as gold forms an electrode on the diaphragm, and a similar film or layer 122 forms an electrode on the substrate. These two electrodes, separated by the dielectric cavity 118, form a capacitance. When an acoustic echo signal causes the membrane 114 to vibrate the
  • CMUT complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
  • an a.c. signal applied to the electrodes 120, 122 will modulate the capacitance, causing the membrane to move and thereby transmit an acoustic signal.
  • CMUT cells Due to the micron-size dimensions of a typical CMUT, numerous such CMUT cells are typically fabricated in close proximity to form a single transducer element. The individual cells can have round, rectangular, hexagonal, or other peripheral shapes.
  • ultrasonic waves pass through tissue on both transmit and receive, they are affected by what is known as depth-dependent attenuation. Ultrasound is progressively attenuated the further it travels through the body and the signal to noise ratio of echoes from extended depths in the body deteriorates.
  • the passband of the ultrasound system is set to a high frequency band as echoes are initially received from shallow depths, then moves to lower center frequency bands as echoes are received from increasing depths. While a
  • tracking filter adapts the response of the ultrasound system to depth-dependent frequency attenuation, it would also be desirable to adapt the response of the transducer probe in the same way.
  • CMUTs use a DC bias voltage to control the spacing between the diaphragm and the substrate: the higher the bias voltage, the greater the electrostatic attraction between the diaphragm and substrate electrodes, and the closer the diaphragm is pulled toward the substrate.
  • a CMUT transducer is controlled to exhibit a variable frequency response.
  • the CMUT transducer is operated in a collapsed mode with the diaphragm of the cell in contact with the floor of the cell during operation.
  • a DC bias voltage is controlled to vary the frequency response of the collapsed mode CMUT in a direct relationship between the bias voltage and the frequency response.
  • the passband of the transducer moves to progressively lower bands of frequencies. Effecting frequency control in this manner has been found to improve the sensitivity of the CMUT by an order of magnitude as compared to the frequency control techniques of the prior art.
  • FIGURE 1 illustrates in block diagram form an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system with a
  • FIGURE 2 illustrates a standard CMUT cell controlled by a DC bias voltage and driven by an r.f. drive signal.
  • FIGURES 3a-3d illustrate the principles of collapsed mode CMUT operation applied in an
  • FIGURE 4 illustrates the frequency response of a collapsed mode CMUT transducer with a fixed DC bias voltage .
  • FIGURE 5 illustrates the frequency response of a collapsed mode CMUT transducer with a DC bias voltage varied in accordance with the present invention.
  • FIGURES 6a and 6b illustrate the variation of the passband of a collapsed mode CMUT transducer in accordance with the present invention when varied by the PEN/GEN/RES control of an ultrasound system.
  • FIGURE 7 illustrates the change in frequency of returning echo signals as a function of time and depth .
  • FIGURE 8 illustrates the variation of the DC bias voltage used to respond to the changing
  • FIGURE 9 illustrates in cross-section a typical CMUT cell of the prior art.
  • FIGURE 1 an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system with a frequency-controlled CMUT probe is shown in block diagram form.
  • FIGURE 1 an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system with a frequency-controlled CMUT probe is shown in block diagram form.
  • a CMUT transducer array 10' is provided in an ultrasound probe 10 for transmitting ultrasonic waves and receiving echo information.
  • the transducer array 10' is a one- or a two-dimensional array of
  • transducer elements capable of scanning in a 2D plane or in three dimensions for 3D imaging.
  • transducer array is coupled to a microbeamformer 12 in the probe which controls transmission and
  • Microbeamformers are capable of at least partial beamforming of the signals received by groups or
  • transducer controller 18 coupled to the T/R switch and the main system beamformer 20, which receives input from the user's operation of the user interface or control panel 38.
  • a transducer controller 18 coupled to the T/R switch and the main system beamformer 20, which receives input from the user's operation of the user interface or control panel 38.
  • One of the functions controlled by the transducer controller is the
  • Beams may be steered straight ahead from (orthogonal to) the transducer array, or at different angles for a wider field of view.
  • the partially beamformed signals produced by the microbeamformer 12 on receive are coupled to a main beamformer 20 where partially beamformed signals from individual patches of transducer elements are
  • the main beamformer 20 may have 128 channels, each of which receives a partially beamformed signal from a patch of dozens or hundreds of CMUT transducer cells. In this way the signals received by thousands of transducer elements of a CMUT transducer array can contribute efficiently to a single beamformed signal.
  • the beamformed signals are coupled to a signal processor 22.
  • the signal processor 22 can process the received echo signals in various ways, such as bandpass filtering, decimation, I and Q component separation, and harmonic signal separation which acts to separate linear and nonlinear signals so as to enable the identification of nonlinear echo signals returned from tissue and microbubbles .
  • the signal processor may also perform additional signal
  • the bandpass filter in the signal processor can be a tracking filter as described above, with its passband sliding from a higher frequency band to a lower frequency band as echo signals are received from increasing depths, thereby rejecting the noise at higher
  • the processed signals are coupled to a B mode processor 26 and a Doppler processor 28.
  • the B mode processor 26 employs amplitude detection for the imaging of structures in the body such as the tissue of organs and vessels in the body.
  • B mode images of structure of the body may be formed in either the harmonic mode or the fundamental mode or a
  • the Doppler processor 28 processes temporally
  • Doppler processor typically includes a wall filter with parameters which may be set to pass and/or reject echoes returned from selected types of
  • the wall filter can be set to have a passband characteristic which passes signal of relatively low amplitude from higher velocity materials while rejecting relatively strong signals from lower or zero velocity material. This passband characteristic will pass signals from
  • the Doppler processor receives and processes a sequence of temporally discrete echo signals from different points in an image field, the sequence of echoes from a particular point referred to as an ensemble.
  • An ensemble of echoes received in rapid succession over a relatively short interval can be used to estimate the Doppler shift frequency of flowing blood, with the correspondence of the Doppler frequency to velocity indicating the blood flow velocity.
  • An ensemble of echoes received over a longer period of time is used to estimate the
  • the structural and motion signals produced by the B mode and Doppler processors are coupled to a scan converter 32 and a multiplanar reformatter 44.
  • the scan converter arranges the echo signals in the spatial relationship from which they were received in a desired image format. For instance, the scan converter may arrange the echo signal into a two dimensional (2D) sector-shaped format, or a pyramidal three dimensional (3D) image.
  • the scan converter can overlay a B mode structural image with colors
  • the multiplanar reformatter will convert echoes which are received from points in a common plane in a volumetric region of the body into an ultrasonic image of that plane, as described in US Pat.
  • a volume renderer 42 converts the echo signals of a 3D data set into a projected 3D image as viewed from a given reference point as described in US Pat. 6,530,885 (Entrekin et al . )
  • the 2D or 3D images are coupled from the scan converter 32, multiplanar reformatter 44, and volume renderer
  • the blood flow velocity values produced by the Doppler processor 28 are coupled to a flow
  • the flow quantification processor produces measure of different flow
  • the flow quantification processor may receive input from the user control panel 38, such as the point in the anatomy of an image where a measurement is to be made. Output data from the flow quantification processor is coupled to a graphics processor 36 for the reproduction of measurement values with the image on the display 40.
  • the graphics processor 36 can also generate graphic overlays for display with the ultrasound images. These graphic overlays can
  • the graphics processor receives input from the user interface 38, such as a typed patient name.
  • the user interface is also coupled to the transmit controller 18 to control the generation of ultrasound signals from the transducer array 10' and hence the images produced by the transducer array and the ultrasound system.
  • the user interface is also coupled to the multiplanar reformatter 44 for selection and control of a display of multiple multiplanar reformatted (MPR) images which may be used to perform quantified measures in the image field of the MPR images.
  • MPR multiplanar reformatted
  • the elements of the transducer array 10' comprise CMUT cells.
  • FIGURE 2 shows a conventional CMUT cell with a membrane or diaphragm 114 suspended above a silicon substrate 112 with a gap 118 therebetween.
  • a top electrode 120 is located on the diaphragm 114 and moves with the diaphragm and a bottom electrode is located on the floor of the cell on the upper surface of the substrate 112 in this example.
  • the electrode 122 is circularly configured and embedded in the substrate layer 112.
  • the membrane layer 114 is fixed relative to the top face of the substrate layer 112 and configured and dimensioned so as to define a spherical or
  • the cell and its cavity 18 may define alternative geometries.
  • cavity 118 could define a rectangular or square cross-section, a hexagonal cross-section, an
  • the bottom electrode 122 is typically insulated on its cavity-facing surface with an
  • insulating layer is an oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) dielectric layer formed above the substrate electrode 122 and below the membrane electrode 120.
  • ONO- dielectric layer advantageously reduces charge
  • ONO-dielectric layers on a CMUT are discussed in detail in European patent application no. 08305553.3 by Klootwijk et al . , filed September 16, 2008 and entitled "Capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer.” Use of the ONO-dielectric layer is desirable with precollapsed CMUTs, which are more susceptible to charge retention than CMUTs operated with suspended membranes.
  • CMOS compatible materials e.g., Al, Ti, nitrides (e.g., silicon nitride), oxides (various grades), tetra ethyl oxysilane (TEOS), poly-silicon and the like.
  • the oxide and nitride layers may be formed by chemical vapor deposition and the metallization (electrode) layer put down by a sputtering process.
  • CMOS processes are
  • LPCVD and PECVD the latter having a relatively low operating temperature of less than 400°C.
  • Exemplary techniques for producing the disclosed cavity 118 involve defining the cavity in an initial portion of the membrane layer 114 before adding a top face of the membrane layer 114.
  • Other fabrication details may be found in US Pat. 6,328,697 (Fraser) .
  • the exemplary embodiment depicted in FIGURE 2 the
  • Electrode 120 may have the same outer diameter as the circularly configured electrode plate 122, although such conformance is not required.
  • the membrane electrode 120 is fixed
  • the electrodes of the CMUT provide the capacitive plates of the device and the gap 118 is the dielectric between the plates of the capacitor.
  • the changing dimension of the dielectric gap between the plates provides a changing capacitance which is sensed as the response of the CMUT to a received acoustic echo.
  • the spacing between the electrodes is controlled by applying a DC bias voltage to the electrodes with a DC bias circuit 104.
  • the electrodes 120, 122 are driven by an r.f. signal generator whose a.c. signal causes the diaphragm to vibrate and transmit an acoustic signal.
  • the DC bias voltage can be
  • CMUT cells of the array 10' are
  • the CMUT cell is biased to a precollapsed state in which the membrane 114 is in contact with the floor of the cavity 118 as shown in FIGURE 3a. This is
  • membrane electrode 120 is formed as a ring electrode 130.
  • Other implementations may use a continuous disk electrode which advantageously provides the pull-down force for collapse at the center of the membrane as well as peripherally.
  • the center of the membrane is in contact with the floor of the cavity 118.
  • the center of the membrane 114 does not move during operation of the CMUT. Rather, it is the peripheral area of the membrane 114 which moves, that which is above the remaining open void of the cavity 118 and below the ring electrode.
  • the membrane electrode 130 By forming the membrane electrode 130 as a ring, the charge of the upper plate of the capacitance of the device is located above the area of the CMUT which exhibits the motion and capacitive variation when the CMUT is operating as a transducer. Thus, the coupling coefficient of the CMUT transducer is improved.
  • the membrane 114 may be brought to its collapsed state in contact with the center of the floor of the cavity 118 by applying the necessary bias voltage, which is a function of the cell diameter, the gap between the membrane and the cavity floor, and the membrane materials and thickness. As the voltage is increased, the capacitance of the CMUT cell is monitored with a capacitance meter. A sudden change in the capacitance indicates that the membrane has collapsed to the floor of the cavity.
  • the membrane can be biased downward until it just touches the floor of the cavity as indicated in FIGURE 3a, or can be biased further downward as shown in FIGURE 3b to increased collapse beyond that of minimal contact.
  • membrane 114 to its precollapsed state is to apply pressure to the top of the membrane.
  • atmospheric pressure 1 Bar
  • this overlaying structural member can also be constructed to act as an acoustic lens for the CMUT transducer.
  • CMUT is varied by adjusting the DC bias voltage applied to the CMUT electrodes after collapse.
  • the resonant frequency of the CMUT cell increases as higher DC bias is applied to the
  • FIGURES 3a-3d The principles behind this phenomenon are illustrated in FIGURES 3a-3d.
  • the cross- sectional views of FIGURES 3a and 3c illustrate this one dimensionally by the distances Di and D 2 between the outer support of the membrane 114 and the point where the membrane begins to touch the floor of the cavity 118 in each illustration. It can be seen that the distance Di is a relatively long distance in
  • FIGURE 3a when a relatively low bias voltage is applied after collapse, and the distance D 2 in FIGURE 3c is a much shorter distance when a higher bias voltage is applied.
  • the effective vibrating area Ai of the noncontacting portion of the cell membrane 114 is large as shown in FIGURE 3b.
  • the small hole in the center represents the center contact region of the membrane.
  • the large area membrane will vibrate at a relatively low frequency. But when the membrane is pulled into deeper collapse by a higher bias voltage as in FIGURE 3c, the greater central contact area results in a lesser noncontacting vibration area A 2 as shown in FIGURE 3d. This lesser area A 2 will vibrate at a higher frequency than the larger Ai area.
  • FIGURES 4 and 5 illustrate how variation of the DC bias voltage of a collapsed CMUT can optimize the transducer for a particular desired frequency of operation.
  • FIGURE 4 illustrates a frequency response curve 54 for a CMUT transducer with a fixed DC bias which has a nominal center frequency of around 6 MHz.
  • the response curve of signals around 6 MHz exhibits good sensitivity, as it is operating in the center of the passband.
  • a band 52 of signals in this range rolls off because the band 52 is at the lower end of the response curve 54 and is down around 4 dB below peak.
  • 8 illustrates how variation of the DC bias voltage of a collapsed CMUT can optimize the transducer for a particular desired frequency of operation.
  • FIGURE 4 illustrates a frequency response curve 54 for a CMUT transducer with a fixed DC bias which has a nominal center frequency of around 6 MHz.
  • FIGURE 5 illustrates, when a DC bias of 70 volts is used for low band operation, 90 volts is used for mid-band operation, and 120 volts is used for high band operation in this example, the desired passbands 52', 54' and 56' are in the center of the shifted resonant transducer passband in each case, resulting in little or no side skirt frequency rolloff .
  • An ultrasound system generally provides the operating clinician with the ability to set the frequency band of operation for a particular clinical application.
  • the clinician can adjust a user control on the system control panel 38 to excite the transducer at lower frequencies for better penetration (PEN mode 52), higher frequencies for better resolution (RES mode 56) , or a range of intermediate frequencies for general applications requiring both good penetration and good resolution (GEN mode 54) as illustrated in FIGURE 6a.
  • PEN mode 52 higher frequencies for better resolution
  • GEN mode 54 a range of intermediate frequencies for general applications requiring both good penetration and good resolution
  • a lower band 52' can be used in the PEN mode, an intermediate band 54' used in the GEN mode, and a high band 56' used in the RES mode as shown in FIGURE 6b.
  • the PEN and RES bands 52 ' and 56 ' are seen to exhibit improved sensitivity as compared to the lower response of bands 52 and 56 when a fixed DC bias optimized for the center GEN band is used.
  • the frequency response of the variable band collapsed mode CMUT transducer probe is tailored to the needs of a particular clinical application.
  • the frequency response of a variable band collapsed mode CMUT transducer can also be
  • FIGURE 7 illustrates the progressive decline in the center frequency of echo signals 62, 64, 66 as the echoes are received from increasing depths over time as shown by the ordinate axis of the illustration.
  • the line 60 plots the steady decline in center frequency with depth (time)
  • the DC bias voltag of a collapsed mode CMUT is varied from a higher voltage to a lower voltage as shown by the line 70, and the center frequency of the CMUT cells declines correspondingly.
  • the frequency response of the collapsed mode CMUT array is continually tailored to follow the depth-dependent frequency attention by this method of DC bias control

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  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
  • Heart & Thoracic Surgery (AREA)
  • Surgery (AREA)
  • Pathology (AREA)
  • Radiology & Medical Imaging (AREA)
  • Biophysics (AREA)
  • Biomedical Technology (AREA)
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  • Medical Informatics (AREA)
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  • Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy & Molecular Imaging (AREA)
  • Animal Behavior & Ethology (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Public Health (AREA)
  • Veterinary Medicine (AREA)
  • Gynecology & Obstetrics (AREA)
  • Transducers For Ultrasonic Waves (AREA)
  • Ultra Sonic Daignosis Equipment (AREA)
  • Investigating Or Analyzing Materials By The Use Of Ultrasonic Waves (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention porte sur un système d'imagerie de diagnostic ultrasonique qui possède une sonde de transducteur CMUT comprenant un réseau de cellules CMUT commandées dans un mode effondré durant une émission et une réception de signal ultrasonique. La réponse fréquentielle sur les cellules CMUT est ajustée pour différentes applications cliniques ou modifiée de manière continue durant une réception d'écho par diminution de la tension de polarisation à courant continu (CC) pour les cellules CMUT pour des applications cliniques de fréquence inférieure, augmentation de la tension de polarisation CC pour des applications cliniques de fréquence supérieure, ou diminution de manière continue de la tension de polarisation CC lorsque des échos sont reçus pour suivre la composition de fréquence d'informations des signaux d'écho de renvoi.
PCT/IB2014/064079 2013-08-27 2014-08-27 Commande de fréquence variable de transducteur cmut à mode effondré WO2015028945A2 (fr)

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WO2017097968A1 (fr) 2015-12-10 2017-06-15 Koninklijke Philips N.V. Sonde de système et système d'imagerie par ultrasons, et procédé d'imagerie
WO2017222964A1 (fr) 2016-06-20 2017-12-28 Butterfly Network, Inc. Sonde à ultrasons universelle et appareil et procédés associés
US11061000B2 (en) 2016-12-01 2021-07-13 Koninklijke Philips N.V. CMUT probe, system and method
US11311274B2 (en) 2016-06-20 2022-04-26 Bfly Operations, Inc. Universal ultrasound device and related apparatus and methods
US11400487B2 (en) 2016-06-13 2022-08-02 Koninklijke Philips N.V. Broadband ultrasound transducer

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Cited By (13)

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Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
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