Novel Piezoelectric Transducers for Interventional and Wearable Ultrasound Sensing, Imaging and Therapy

In this talk, design, fabrication and characterization of several piezoelectric transducers are presented for interventional and wearable ultrasound sensing, imaging and therapy applications. Firstly, we investigated high frequency (40-60 MHz) micromachined piezoelectric composite transducers and arrays with broad bandwidth (-6 dB fraction bandwidth ~ 80%) for intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging. Dual frequency transducers and arrays (6.5 MHz/30 MHz, 3 MHz/30 MHz) were also successfully demonstrated for microbubble enhanced intravascular superharmonic imaging (or acoustic angiography) toward detection of plaque vulnerability. As an example of interventional therapy, intravascular sonothrombolysis was successfully demonstrated with unprecedented lysis rate by using small aperture (diameter <2 mm) sub-MHz forward-looking and vortex piezoelectric transducers. Finally, we report flexible piezoelectric transducers with silver nanowire electrodes for wearable ultrasonic blood pressure sensing and muscle imaging for assistive robots. These new piezoelectric transducers present great opportunities to address challenges in advanced interventional and wearable ultrasound sensing, imaging and therapy.

Dr. Xiaoning Jiang

NC State Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering on March 23, 2023 at 12:00 PM in MRC 454

Dr. Xiaoning Jiang is a Dean F. Duncan Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a University Faculty Scholar at North Carolina State University. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an Adjunct Professor of Neurology in Duke University. Dr. Jiang received his Ph.D. degree from Tsinghua University (1997) and his Postdoctoral training from the Nanyang Technological University and the Pennsylvania State University (1997-2001). He was the Chief Scientist and Vice President for TRS Technologies, Inc. prior to joining NC State in 2009. Dr. Jiang is the author and co-author of two books, 6 book chapters, 24 issued and pending US Patents, more than 170 peer reviewed journal papers and over 140 conference papers on piezoelectric ultrasound transducers, ultrasound for medical imaging and therapy, drug delivery, ultrasound NDT/NDE, smart materials and structures and M/NEMS. Dr. Jiang serves as the Vice President for Technical Activities in IEEE Nanotechnology Council (NTC). He was the Co-Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Nanotechnology Magazine (2020 - 2021) and an IEEE NTC Distinguished Lecturer in 2018 and 2019. Dr. Jiang is an ASME Fellow, a SPIE Fellow and an IEEE Fellow.

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