TY - JOUR
T1 - Flexible large-area ultrasound arrays for medical applications made using embossed polymer structures
AU - van Neer, Paul L.M.J.
AU - Peters, Laurens C.J.M.
AU - Verbeek, Roy G.F.A.
AU - Peeters, Bart
AU - de Haas, Gerard
AU - Hörchens, Lars
AU - Fillinger, Laurent
AU - Schrama, Thijs
AU - Merks-Swolfs, Egon J.W.
AU - Gijsbertse, Kaj
AU - Saris, Anne E.C.M.
AU - Mozaffarzadeh, Moein
AU - Menssen, Jan M.
AU - de Korte, Chris L.
AU - van der Steen, Jan Laurens P.J.
AU - Volker, Arno W.F.
AU - Gelinck, Gerwin H.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - With the huge progress in micro-electronics and artificial intelligence, the ultrasound probe has become the bottleneck in further adoption of ultrasound beyond the clinical setting (e.g. home and monitoring applications). Today, ultrasound transducers have a small aperture, are bulky, contain lead and are expensive to fabricate. Furthermore, they are rigid, which limits their integration into flexible skin patches. New ways to fabricate flexible ultrasound patches have therefore attracted much attention recently. First prototypes typically use the same lead-containing piezo-electric materials, and are made using micro-assembly of rigid active components on plastic or rubber-like substrates. We present an ultrasound transducer-on-foil technology based on thermal embossing of a piezoelectric polymer. High-quality two-dimensional ultrasound images of a tissue mimicking phantom are obtained. Mechanical flexibility and effective area scalability of the transducer are demonstrated by functional integration into an endoscope probe with a small radius of 3 mm and a large area (91.2×14 mm2) non-invasive blood pressure sensor.
AB - With the huge progress in micro-electronics and artificial intelligence, the ultrasound probe has become the bottleneck in further adoption of ultrasound beyond the clinical setting (e.g. home and monitoring applications). Today, ultrasound transducers have a small aperture, are bulky, contain lead and are expensive to fabricate. Furthermore, they are rigid, which limits their integration into flexible skin patches. New ways to fabricate flexible ultrasound patches have therefore attracted much attention recently. First prototypes typically use the same lead-containing piezo-electric materials, and are made using micro-assembly of rigid active components on plastic or rubber-like substrates. We present an ultrasound transducer-on-foil technology based on thermal embossing of a piezoelectric polymer. High-quality two-dimensional ultrasound images of a tissue mimicking phantom are obtained. Mechanical flexibility and effective area scalability of the transducer are demonstrated by functional integration into an endoscope probe with a small radius of 3 mm and a large area (91.2×14 mm2) non-invasive blood pressure sensor.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189067239&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-024-47074-1
DO - 10.1038/s41467-024-47074-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 38555281
AN - SCOPUS:85189067239
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 15
JO - Nature communications
JF - Nature communications
IS - 1
M1 - 2802
ER -