Acoustic Angiography Using Dual-Frequency and Ultrawideband CMUT Arrays
Omer Oralkan
Paul A. Dayton
Feysel Yalcin Yamaner
Project runs from 07/01/2018 to 03/31/2022
$1,885,897
Recent research has demonstrated that the performance of contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging in resolution and signal-to-noise ratio can be enhanced substantially with broadband dual-frequency transducers which can enable superharmonic ‘acoustic angiography’ contrast imaging. Data have demonstrated that this new imaging paradigm can detect biomarkers of cancer with substantially higher sensitivity and specificity than traditional grayscale ultrasound. The main limitation is that such transducers are very difficult to fabricate, however, our team believes that Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs) may be the answer to this challenge. In this project, we will design and test CMUTs for broadband dual-frequency contrast ultrasound imaging.