Biomedical Ultrasound: Fundamentals of Imaging and Micromachined Transducers

ABOUT THE COURSE: Ultrasound is growing rapidly as a diagnostic modality due to its low cost, non-ionizing nature, and portability, and has the potential to significantly impact healthcare delivery. This course will provide the conceptual foundations and practical insights for the use of ultrasound imaging, encompassing physics, instrumentation, signal generation, image reconstruction, and clinical applications. There is great interest in cutting edge research on biomedical ultrasound electronic system development and validation. Microfabricated transducers represent a new frontier in ultrasound, promising better performance and reduced complexity and cost. However, to employ microfabrication multidisciplinary expertise is necessary. This course offers exposure to the right mix of concepts in biomedical ultrasound along with microfabrication for techniques to develop transducers.INTENDED AUDIENCE: Engineering Students, Research Students, Faculty from Engineering Colleges, Medical Students, Faculty from Medical CollegesPREREQUISITES: UG third year students in ECE, Instrumentation, Physics, MMBS, can take this course.INDUSTRY SUPPORT: MathWorks, Phillips, Siemens, GE, Samsung, Fujifilm, Canon, Verasonics

Week 1: Basics of wave propagation, acoustic impedance
Week 2:Spatial intensity metrics, attenuation, reflection
Week 3:Scattering, refraction, focusing, speckle
Week 4:Piezoelectricity, electrical and mechanical modeling, matching and backing layers, effect on impedance, material properties, piezopolymers, composites, Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers
Week 5:Introduction: Clean Room Classification, Clean Room Protocols, and Clean Room Lab Demonstrations
Week 6:Microfabrication: PVD, CVD, Wet Etching
Week 7:Microfabrication: Lithography and Micromachining
Week 8:Transducer arrays, apodization, array beamforming, delay-and-sum, basics of Doppler processing
Week 9:Imaging modes, Image reconstruction
Week 10:Imaging artifacts, bioeffects of ultrasound, Safety, New Frontiers (eg. Elastography)
Week 11:Lab Experiment Demonstrations: Thermal Evaporation, E-Beam Evaporation, and Sputtering for Transducer Fabrication
Week 12:Photolithography Tool Demonstrations and a complete process flow demonstration for the fabrication of pMUTs