Integrated Electronics for Wireless Imaging Microsystems with CMUT Arrays

Integration of transducer arrays with interface electronics in the form of single-chip CMUT-on-CMOS has emerged into the field of medical ultrasound imaging and is transforming this field. It has already been used in several commercial products such as handheld full-body imagers and it is being implemented by commercial and academic groups for Intravascular Ultrasound and Intracardiac Echocardiography. However, large attenuation of ultrasonic waves transmitted through the skull has prevented ultrasound imaging of the brain. This research is a prime step toward implantable wireless microsystems that use ultrasound to image the brain by bypassing the skull. These microsystems offer autonomous scanning (beam steering and focusing) of the brain and transferring data out of the brain for further processing and image reconstruction. The objective of the presented research is to develop building blocks of an integrated electronics architecture for CMUT based wireless ultrasound imaging systems while providing a fundamental study on interfacing CMUT arrays with their associated integrated electronics in terms of electrical power transfer and acoustic reflection which would potentially lead to more efficient and high-performance systems. A fully wireless architecture for ultrasound imaging is demonstrated for the first time. An on-chip programmable transmit (TX) beamformer enables phased array focusing and steering of ultrasound waves in the transmit mode while its on-chip bandpass noise shaping digitizer followed by an ultra-wideband (UWB) uplink transmitter minimizes the effect of path loss on the transmitted image data out of the brain. A single-chip application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) is de- signed to realize the wireless architecture and interface with array elements, each of which includes a transceiver (TRX) front-end with a high-voltage (HV) pulser, a high-voltage T/R switch, and a low-noise amplifier (LNA). Novel design techniques are implemented in the system to enhance the performance of its building blocks. Apart from imaging capability, the implantable wireless microsystems can include a pressure sensing readout to measure intracranial pressure. To do so, a power-efficient readout for pressure sensing is presented. It uses pseudo-pseudo differential readout topology to cut down the static power consumption of the sensor for further power savings in wireless microsystems. In addition, the effect of matching and electrical termination on CMUT array elements is explored leading to new interface structures to improve bandwidth and sensitivity of CMUT arrays in different operation regions. Comprehensive analysis, modeling, and simulation methodologies are presented for further investigation.Ph.D

MEMS Technology for Biomedical Imaging Applications

Biomedical imaging is the key technique and process to create informative images of the human body or other organic structures for clinical purposes or medical science. Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology has demonstrated enormous potential in biomedical imaging applications due to its outstanding advantages of, for instance, miniaturization, high speed, higher resolution, and convenience of batch fabrication. There are many advancements and breakthroughs developing in the academic community, and there are a few challenges raised accordingly upon the designs, structures, fabrication, integration, and applications of MEMS for all kinds of biomedical imaging. This Special Issue aims to collate and showcase research papers, short commutations, perspectives, and insightful review articles from esteemed colleagues that demonstrate: (1) original works on the topic of MEMS components or devices based on various kinds of mechanisms for biomedical imaging; and (2) new developments and potentials of applying MEMS technology of any kind in biomedical imaging. The objective of this special session is to provide insightful information regarding the technological advancements for the researchers in the community

Fabrication of CMUTS based on PMMA adhesive wafer bonding

Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs) are the potential alternatives for the conventional piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers. CMUTs have been under an extensive research and development since their first development in the mid- 1990s. Initially developed for air-coupled applications, CMUTs have shown far better acceptability in immersion-based applications (i.e. medical ultrasonic imaging, medical therapy, and underwater imaging) when compared to the piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers. CMUTs are parallel-plate capacitors fabricated using the Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology. Despite of the fact that various CMUT fabrication methods have been reported in the literature, there are still many challenges to address in CMUTs design and fabrication. Standard fabrication techniques are further sub-divided into the Sacrificial Layer Release Process and the Wafer Bonding methods. A number of complications are associated with these techniques, such as optimization of the design parameters, process complexity, sacrificial layer material with the corresponding etchant selection, wafer cost and selection. In particular, the sacrificial release methods consist of complex fabrication steps. Furthermore, structural parameters like gap height and radius have optimization issues during the sacrificial release process. On the other hand, the wafer bonding techniques for the CMUTs fabrication are simple and have a great control over the structure parameters in contrast to the sacrificial release methods. At the same time, the wafer-bonded CMUTs require very high quality wafer surface and have a very high contamination sensitivity. For this purpose, this dissertation aims to develop a simple, low cost and lower constraint thermocompression-based technique for the CMUT fabrication. The proposed wafer bonding technique for the CMUT fabrication in the dissertation uses Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) adhesive as an intermediate layer for the thermocompression wafer bonding. The advantages associated with the PMMA adhesivebased wafer bonding over the other wafer bonding methods include low process temperature (usually 200 C or less), high wafer surface defects and contamination tolerance, high surface energy and low bonding stresses. These factors will add cost effectiveness and simplicity to the CMUTs fabrication process. Furthermore, the achieved receive sensitivity with the reported CMUT is found comparable to the commercially available ultrasonic transducer

Modeling of an implantable device for remote arterial pressure measurement

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of illness and death in Europe, having a major impact on healthcare costs. An intelligent stent (e-stent), capable of obtaining and transmitting measurements of physiological parameters, can be a useful tool for real-time monitorization of arterial blockage without patient hospitalization. In this paper, a behavioral model of a pressure sensing-based e-stent is proposed and simulated under several restenosis conditions. Special attention has been given to the need of an accurate fault model, obtained from realistic finite-element simulations, to ensure long-term reliability; particularly for those faults whose behavior cannot be described by usual analytical models

Battery-less near field communications (nfc) sensors for internet of things (iot) applications

L’ implementació de la tecnologia de comunicació de camp proper (NFC) en els telèfons intel·ligents no para de créixer degut a l’ús d’aquesta per fer pagaments, això, junt amb el fet de poder aprofitar l’energia generada pel mòbil no només per la comunicació, sinó també per transmetre energia, el baix cost dels xips NFC, i el fet de que els telèfons tinguin connectivitat amb internet, possibilita i fa molt interesant el disseny d’etiquetes sense bateria incorporant-hi sensors i poder enviar la informació al núvol, dins del creixent escenari de l’internet de les coses (IoT). La present Tesi estudia la viabilitat d’aquests sensors, analitzant la màxima distància entre lector i sensor per proveir la potència necessària, presenta tècniques per augmentar el rang d’operació, i analitza els efectes de certs materials quan aquests estan propers a les antenes. Diversos sensors han estat dissenyats i analitzats i son presentats en aquest treball. Aquests son: Una etiqueta que mesura la humitat de la terra, la temperatura i la humitat relativa de l’aire per controlar les condicions de plantes. Un sensor per detectar la humitat en bolquers, imprès en material flexible que s’adapta a la forma del bolquer. Dues aplicacions, una per estimació de pH i una altre per avaluar el grau de maduració de fruites, basats en un sensor de color. I, per últim, s’estudia la viabilitat de sensors en implants per aplicacions mèdiques, analitzant l’efecte del cos i proposant un sistema per augmentar la profunditat a la que aquests es poden llegir utilitzant un telèfon mòbil. Tots aquests sensors poden ser alimentats i llegits per qualsevol dispositiu que disposin de connexió NFC.La implementación de la tecnología de comunicaciones de campo cercano (NFC) en los teléfonos inteligentes no para de crecer debido al uso de esta para llevar a cabo pagos, esto, junto con el hecho de poder aprovechar la energía generada por el móvil no sólo para la comunicación, sino también para transmitir energía, el bajo coste de los chips NFC, i el hecho que los teléfonos tengan conectividad a internet, posibilita y hace muy interesante el diseño de etiquetas sin batería que incorporen sensores i poder enviar la información a la nube, enmarcado en el creciente escenario del internet de las cosas (IoT). La presente Tesis estudia la viabilidad de estos sensores, analizando la máxima distancia entre lector i sensor para proveer la potencia necesaria, presenta técnicas para aumentar el rango de operación, y analiza los efectos de ciertos materiales cuando estos están cerca de las antenas. Varios sensores han sido diseñados y analizados y son presentados en este trabajo. Estos son: Una etiqueta que mide la humedad de la tierra, la temperatura y la humedad relativa del aire para controlar las condiciones de plantas. Un sensor para detectar la humedad en pañales, impreso en material flexible que se adapta a la forma del pañal. Dos aplicaciones, una para estimación de pH y otra para evaluar el grado de maduración de frutas, basados en un sensor de color. Y, por último, se estudia la viabilidad de sensores en implantes para aplicaciones médicas, analizando el efecto del cuerpo y proponiendo un sistema para aumentar la profundidad a la que estos se pueden leer usando un teléfono móvil. Todos estos sensores pueden ser alimentados y leídos por cualquier dispositivo que disponga de conexión NFC.The implementation of near field communication (NFC) technology into smartphones grows rapidly due the use of this technology as a payment system. This, altogether with the fact that the energy generated by the phone can be used not only to communicate but for power transfer as well, the low-cost of the NFC chips, and the fact that the smartphones have connectivity to internet, makes possible and very interesting the design of battery-less sensing tags which information can be sent to the cloud, within the growing internet of things (IoT) scenario. This Thesis studies the feasibility of these sensors, analysing the maximum distance between reader and sensor to provide the necessary power, presents techniques to increase the range of operation, and analyses the effects of certain materials when they are near to the antennas. Several sensors have been designed and analysed and are presented in this work. These are: a tag that measures the soil moisture, the temperature and the relative humidity of the air to control the conditions of plants. A moisture sensor for diapers, printed on flexible material that adapts to the diaper shape. Two applications, one for pH estimation and another for assessing the degree of fruit ripening, based on a colour sensor. And finally, the feasibility of sensors in implants for medical applications is studied, analysing the effect of the body and proposing a system to increase the depth at which they can be read using a mobile phone. All of these sensors can be powered and read by any NFC enabled device

Fabrication of Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers based on Adhesive Wafer Bonding

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) can be used for medical imaging, non-destructive testing or medical treatment applications. It can also be used as gravimetric sensors for gas sensing or immersion bio-sensing. Although various CMUT fabrication methods have been reported, there are still many challenges to address. Conventional fabrication methods can be categorized as either surface micromachining or the wafer bonding method. These methods have design trade-offs and limitations associated with process complexity, structural parameter optimization and wafer materials selection. For example, surface micromachining approaches can suffer from complicated fabrication processes. In addition, structural parameters cannot be fully optimized due to feasibility concerns during fabrication. In contrast, the development of wafer bonding techniques enabled CMUTs to be fabricated in a straightforward way and structural parameters can be easily optimized when compared with a surface micromachining approach. However, the yield of the traditional wafer bonded CMUTs is very sensitive to contaminations and the surface quality at the bonding interface. Although the difficulties of the wafer bonding process are not always reported, they definitely exist for every researcher who wants to fabricate their own CMUTs. As a result, this dissertation work aims to develop a CMUT fabrication process with fewer fabrication constraints, low-cost and low process temperature for CMOS integration. The developed CMUT fabrication processes reported in the thesis applied photosensitive polymer adhesive for wafer bonding in order to make a process with good tolerance to contaminations and defects on the wafer surface, present a wide range of material selection at the bonding interface and require low process temperature (less than 250°C). These features can benefit CMUT fabrication with increased yield better design flexibility and lower cost. Having maximum process temperature of 250°C, the developed processes can also be CMOS compatible. Furthermore, a novel CMUT structure, which can only be achieved by the reported technique, was developed showing more than doubled ultrasound receive sensitivity when compared with conventional CMUT structures. The fabrication processes were developed systematically and the details of process development will be presented in this thesis

Effects of biocompatible encapsulations on the acoustic characteristics of CMUTs

Advances in modern medicine enable the use of medical implants for the treatment of an increasing number of diseases. If different implanted systems need to communicate with each other, data transmission using ultrasound is a promising solution. In this dissertation, an encapsulation strategy, which allows the use of capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) within conventional implant housings, was developed and evaluated for the first time. The novel encapsulation approach consists of a silicone layer for coupling the CMUT to a layer of polyether ether ketone (PEEK) or titanium. Both materials are widely used for medical implant housings. Finite element simulations, complemented by measurements in air and in immersion as well as ex vivo experiments, have shown that effective data transmission with data rates of minimum 0.8 Mbps is possible over at least 6 cm with this encapsulation strategy.Die Fortschritte in der modernen Medizin ermöglichen immer häufiger den Einsatz von medizinischen Implantaten zur Therapie. In Anwendungsfällen, die eine Kommunikation mehrerer implantierter Systeme untereinander erfordern, stellt die Datenübertragung mit Hilfe akustischer Wellen eine vielversprechende Lösung dar. Hierfür ist eine biokompatible Kapselung nötig, die eine effiziente Datenübertragung nicht verhindert. In dieser Arbeit wird erstmals eine Kapselungsstrategie entwickelt und evaluiert, die den Einsatz von kapazitiven mikromechanischen Ultraschallwandlern (CMUTs) innerhalb konventioneller Implantatgehäuse ermöglicht. Die untersuchte neuartige Kapselung besteht aus einer Silikonschicht zur Ankopplung an eine Schicht aus Polyetheretherketon (PEEK) oder Titan, zwei weitverbreitete Materialien für die Kapselung medizinischer Implantate. Finite Elemente Simulationen, Messungen in Luft und Flüssigkeit sowie ex vivo Experimente haben gezeigt, dass mit dieser Kapselungsstrategie eine effektive Datenübertragung über mindestens 6 cm möglich ist. Die in ex vivo Experimenten ermittelten Frequenzbandbreiten der gekapselten CMUTs ermöglichen Datenraten von mindestens 0.8 Mbps. Ein zusätzlicher experimenteller Vergleich mit herkömmlichen Kapselungen für CMUTs bestätigt das große Potenzial der neuartigen Kapselung aus Silikon und PEEK. Abschließend wurden zukünftige Ansatzpunkte zur Steigerung von Signalamplitude und Datenrate identifiziert und diskutiert

Development of electronics for microultrasound capsule endoscopy

Development of intracorporeal devices has surged in the last decade due to advancements in the semiconductor industry, energy storage and low-power sensing systems. This work aims to present a thorough systematic overview and exploration of the microultrasound (µUS) capsule endoscopy (CE) field as the development of electronic components will be key to a successful applicable µUSCE device. The research focused on investigating and designing high-voltage (HV, < 36 V) generating and driving circuits as well as a low-noise amplifier (LNA) for battery-powered and volume-limited systems. In implantable applications, HV generation with maximum efficiency is required to improve the operational lifetime whilst reducing the cost of the device. A fully integrated hybrid (H) charge pump (CP) comprising a serial-parallel (SP) stage was designed and manufactured for > 20 V and 0 - 100 µA output capabilities. The results were compared to a Dickson (DKCP) occupying the same chip area; further improvements in the SPCP topology were explored and a new switching scheme for SPCPs was introduced. A second regulated CP version was excogitated and manufactured to use with an integrated µUS pulse generator. The CP was manufactured and tested at different output currents and capacitive loads; its operation with an US pulser was evaluated and a novel self-oscillating CP mechanism to eliminate the need of an auxiliary clock generator with a minimum area overhead was devised. A single-output universal US pulser was designed, manufactured and tested with 1.5 MHz, 3 MHz, and 28 MHz arrays to achieve a means of fully-integrated, low-power transducer driving. The circuit was evaluated for power consumption and pulse generation capabilities with different loads. Pulse-echo measurements were carried out and compared with those from a commercial US research system to characterise and understand the quality of the generated pulse. A second pulser version for a 28 MHz array was derived to allow control of individual elements. The work involved its optimisation methodology and design of a novel HV feedback-based level-shifter. A low-noise amplifier (LNA) was designed for a wide bandwidth µUS array with a centre frequency of 28 MHz. The LNA was based on an energy-efficient inverter architecture. The circuit encompassed a full power-down functionality and was investigated for a self-biased operation to achieve lower chip area. The explored concepts enable realisation of low power and high performance LNAs for µUS frequencies

Development of a high-density piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer array based on patterned aluminum nitride thin film

This study presents the fabrication and characterization of a piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (pMUT; radius: 40 μm) using a patterned aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film as the active piezoelectric material. A 20 x 20 array of pMUTs using a 1 μm thick AlN thin film was designed and fabricated on a 2 x 2 mm2 footprint for a high fill factor. Based on the electrical impedance and phase of the pMUT array, the electromechanical coefficient was ~1.7% at the average resonant frequency of 2.82 MHz in air. Dynamic displacement of the pMUT surface was characterized by scanning laser Doppler vibrometry. The pressure output while immersed in water was 19.79 kPa when calculated based on the peak displacement at the resonant frequency. The proposed AlN pMUT array has potential applications in biomedical sensing for healthcare, medical imaging, and biometrics. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.1

Front-end receiver for miniaturised ultrasound imaging

Point of care ultrasonography has been the focus of extensive research over the past few decades. Miniaturised, wireless systems have been envisaged for new application areas, such as capsule endoscopy, implantable ultrasound and wearable ultrasound. The hardware constraints of such small-scale systems are severe, and tradeoffs between power consumption, size, data bandwidth and cost must be carefully balanced. To address these challenges, two synthetic aperture receiver architectures are proposed and compared. The architectures target highly miniaturised, low cost, B-mode ultrasound imaging systems. The first architecture utilises quadrature (I/Q) sampling to minimise the signal bandwidth and computational load. Synthetic aperture beamforming is carried out using a single-channel, pipelined protocol in order to minimise system complexity and power consumption. A digital beamformer dynamically apodises and focuses the data by interpolating and applying complex phase rotations to the I/Q samples. The beamformer is implemented on a Spartan-6 FPGA and consumes 296mW for a frame rate of 7Hz. The second architecture employs compressive sensing within the finite rate of innovation (FRI) framework to further reduce the data bandwidth. Signals are sampled below the Nyquist frequency, and then transmitted to a digital back-end processor, which reconstructs I/Q components non-linearly, and then carries out synthetic aperture beamforming. Both architectures were tested in hardware using a single-channel analogue front-end (AFE) that was designed and fabricated in AMS 0.35μm CMOS. The AFE demodulates RF ultrasound signals sequentially into I/Q components, and comprises a low-noise preamplifier, mixer, programmable gain amplifier (PGA) and lowpass filter. A variable gain low noise preamplifier topology is used to enable quasi-exponential time-gain control (TGC). The PGA enables digital selection of three gain values (15dB, 22dB and 25.5dB). The bandwidth of the lowpass filter is also selectable between 1.85MHz, 510kHz and 195kHz to allow for testing of both architectural frameworks. The entire AFE consumes 7.8 mW and occupies an area of 1.5×1.5 mm. In addition to the AFE, this thesis also presents the design of a pseudodifferential, log-domain multiplier-filter or “multer” which demodulates low-RF signals in the current-domain. This circuit targets high impedance transducers such as capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers (CMUTs) and offers a 20dB improvement in dynamic range over the voltage-mode AFE. The bandwidth is also electronically tunable. The circuit was implemented in 0.35μm BiCMOS and was simulated in Cadence; however, no fabrication results were obtained for this circuit. B-mode images were obtained for both architectures. The quadrature SAB method yields a higher image SNR and 9% lower root mean squared error with respect to the RF-beamformed reference image than the compressive SAB method. Thus, while both architectures achieve a significant reduction in sampling rate, system complexity and area, the quadrature SAB method achieves better image quality. Future work may involve the addition of multiple receiver channels and the development of an integrated system-on-chip.Open Acces