IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control最新文献

{"title":"A Polymer-Based CMUT Probe for Imaging the Spinal Cord in Rats.","authors":"M Angerer, J Lu, J Welsch, M Lu, C Luo, W Plunet, E Cretu, W Tetzlaff, R Rohling","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3605440","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3605440","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ability of ultrasound imaging to deliver real-time visualization of tissue structures and surgical instruments can provide essential benefits in guiding medical interventions. In spinal cord injury research, small animal models are commonly used, but their size restricts the applicability of many standard ultrasound systems. Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs) offer advantages over traditional piezoelectric transducers, including a smaller form factor, high design flexibility, and improved acoustic performance. CMUT structures made of polymers (polyCMUTs) can be produced cost-effectively and quickly, while potentially offering flexible, biocompatible transducers for next-generation ultrasound systems. This study introduces the first polyCMUT probe designed for imaging spinal cords in rats. A compact 11 MHz, 64 channel probe with a 12.9 x 6.5 mm small tip was developed through a three-stage fabrication process, combining in-house manufactured polyCMUT arrays with electronics, integrated in a research imaging system. Performance evaluation included electrical impedance measurements, acoustic characterization, and in-vitro and ex-vivo imaging. Quality analysis validated the stability of the fabrication process, demonstrating high yield and minimal variability, with a standard deviation in resonance frequency of less than 1%. The probe successfully visualized key anatomical structures like the central canal as well as real-time imaging of needle insertion into tissue. However, distinguishing between gray and white matter remained challenging due to limitations in frequency and bandwidth. This study demonstrates the potential of the polyCMUT technology for developing tailored ultrasound solutions. Future work will focus on optimizing high-frequency performance and advancing toward in-vivo applications to provide meaningful tools in spinal cord injury research and therapeutic interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"PP ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144952365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Publication Information","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3597498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3597498","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"72 9","pages":"C2-C2"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11144926","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144918123","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Contrast-Enhanced Structured Illumination Ultrasound Imaging (CE-SIU)","authors":"Xiaoyu Qian;Jiabin Zhang;Yu Xia;Dongdong Liang;Jue Zhang","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3603281","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3603281","url":null,"abstract":"Super-resolution ultrasound (SRUS) technology based on contrast agents has shown great potential in in vivo microvascular blood flow imaging and has become a hot topic in the industry in recent years. SRUS represented by ultrasound localization microscopy (ULM) eliminates the point spread function (PSF) caused by diffraction by localizing sparse microbubbles in the image, and then constructs a super-resolution blood flow structure map through long-term image accumulation. It is worth mentioning that almost all current super-resolution strategies, including ULM, adopt postimage processing strategies. In optics, in addition to postimage processing super-resolution techniques, the design of the illumination light field is also a popular super-resolution imaging method. This inspired us to design the acoustic field to achieve a super-resolution blood flow imaging strategy based on structured acoustic field illumination. In this article, we propose a new structured acoustic field illumination design method, which achieves 2-D structured acoustic field design by improving the acoustic field calculation of Gerchberg–Saxton algorithm (GSA) based on Talbot effect. At the same time, we have designed a corresponding structured acoustic field reconstruction strategy that can adaptively reconstruct any structured illumination method, and the reconstructed image frame rate is comparable to that of multiangle plane wave. Combined with image postprocessing methods, we have obtained contrast-enhanced structured illumination ultrasound (CE-SIU), which reduces the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the microbubble PSF, breaking through the lateral resolution limit of contrast-enhanced imaging. The super-resolution strategy based on acoustic field design proposed in this study provides new insights and perspectives for the development of the overall technical route of SRUS.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"72 10","pages":"1401-1413"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144952304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Surface Condition Sensing With Broadband and Highly Directional PMUT Array","authors":"Junhao Wang;Jiao Xia;Aocheng Bao;Chong Yang;Jinghan Gan;Lei Zhao;Bowen Sheng;Wei Wang;Yipeng Lu","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3601660","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3601660","url":null,"abstract":"Ultrasound propagation attenuation coefficient detection is a widely used technique for distinguishing different media types. Multifrequency ultrasound detection provides comprehensive information but requires ultrasonic transducers with a broad bandwidth. This study presents a piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) array that integrates multiple frequency elements with optimized spacing to achieve the fusion of multiple vibration modes, resulting in a −6 dB emission fractional bandwidth of 230% and pulse-echo fractional bandwidth up to 146%. This ultrawide bandwidth facilitates accurate pulse-echo signal reception across a broad frequency range while minimizing signal overlap caused by ringdown effects. Moreover, optimizing the PMUT array size relative to wavelength achieved a highly directional 5° acoustic beam, ensuring effective penetration through high attenuation or multilayered structures. Experimental results indicate that attenuation coefficients in ice and liquid correlate with their material composition and structural properties. These findings highlight the significant potential of the PMUT array for identifying and analyzing surface media, with promising applications in power supply systems, transportation, industrial production, and so on.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"72 10","pages":"1324-1335"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144952336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Producing Bessel Beams With an RF Transformer","authors":"Jian-Yu Lu","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3601216","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3601216","url":null,"abstract":"Bessel beams are exact solutions to the isotropic/homogeneous wave equation. In theory, they can propagate to infinite distances without diffraction. In practice, when produced with a finite aperture, they have a very large depth of field, i.e., they can maintain a small beamwidth over a large distance. In addition, they have a self-healing ability after encountering an obstacle. Because of these properties, Bessel beams have applications in optics, electromagnetics, ultrasound, quantum communications, electron beam guidance, and so on. Previously, in ultrasound, Bessel beams were produced with an annular array transducer driven by multiple independent high-voltage radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers that were bulky, heavy, and consumed a lot of power, which limited the Bessel beams in applications such as wearable medical ultrasound imaging and wearable super-resolution imaging. In this article, pulse (broadband) Bessel beams were produced by a single high-voltage RF power amplifier in combination with an RF transformer, reducing the size, weight, and power consumption. Experiments were performed to produce the pulse Bessel beams in water with a custom RF transformer and a custom ten-ring, 50-mm diameter, 2.5-MHz center frequency, and broadband (about 72% -6 dB relative one-way bandwidth) 1–3 lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic/polymer composite annular array transducer driven by a commercial RF power amplifier at about ±90 V. The results show that the pulse Bessel beams produced were very close to those generated with ten independent high-voltage RF power amplifiers, computer simulations, and theory, and the pulse Bessel beams had a -6-dB beamwidth of about 2.53 mm (<inline-formula> <tex-math>$4.22lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and a depth of field of about 216 mm (<inline-formula> <tex-math>$360lambda $ </tex-math></inline-formula>). The reduced number of high-voltage RF power amplifiers makes it easier to apply Bessel beams in applications such as wearable medical ultrasound imaging and wearable super-resolution imaging, as is illustrated in examples where three-dimensional (3-D) or multi-plane images can be produced using a Bessel beam and a mechanically scanned multi-directional vibrating reflector.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"72 10","pages":"1426-1435"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144952294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fusing Echocardiography Images and Medical Records for Continuous Patient Stratification","authors":"Nathan Painchaud;Jérémie Stym-Popper;Pierre-Yves Courand;Nicolas Thome;Pierre-Marc Jodoin;Nicolas Duchateau;Olivier Bernard","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3600902","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3600902","url":null,"abstract":"Deep learning enables automatic and robust extraction of cardiac function descriptors from echocardiographic sequences, such as ejection fraction (EF) or strain. These descriptors provide fine-grained information that physicians consider, in conjunction with more global variables from the clinical record, to assess patients’ condition. Drawing on novel Transformer models applied to tabular data, we propose a method that considers all descriptors extracted from medical records and echocardiograms to learn the representation of a cardiovascular pathology with a difficult-to-characterize continuum, namely hypertension. Our method first projects each variable into its own representation space using modality-specific approaches. These standardized representations of multimodal data are then fed to a Transformer encoder, which learns to merge them into a comprehensive representation of the patient through the task of predicting a clinical rating. This stratification task is formulated as an ordinal classification to enforce a pathological continuum in the representation space. We observe the major trends along this continuum on a cohort of 239 hypertensive patients, providing unprecedented details in the description of hypertension’s impact on various cardiac function descriptors. Our analysis shows that: 1) the XTab foundation model’s architecture allows to reach high performance (96.8% AUROC) even with limited data (less than 200 training samples); 2) stratification across the population is reproducible between trainings [within 5.7% of mean absolute error (MAE)]; and 3) patterns emerge in descriptors, some of which align with established physiological knowledge about hypertension, while others could pave the way for a more comprehensive understanding of this pathology. The code is available at <uri>https://github.com/creatis-myriad/didactic</uri>","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"72 10","pages":"1388-1400"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144952292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Comparison of Image Reconstruction Methods for Ring-Array Photoacoustic Computed Tomography","authors":"Hyungjoo Park;Tri Vu;Junjie Yao;Yun Jing","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3600372","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3600372","url":null,"abstract":"This work compares the effectiveness of four image reconstruction techniques for a ring-array photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) system: the delay-and-sum (DAS), the interpolated model matrix inversion (IMMI), the frequency-domain model-based (FDMB), and the time-reversal (TR) methods. Image quality, computational efficiency, and robustness to noise and spatial/electrical impulse response (EIR) are evaluated to assess the four methods for 2-D imaging. Although it is thought to have limitations in producing high-resolution and artifact-free images, the DAS method is commonly employed in clinical applications because of its simplicity and real-time imaging capability. On the other hand, model-based (MB) methods, such as the IMMI, the FDMB, and the TR methods, use comprehensive physics for a more accurate description of wave propagation through tissue and thus have the potential to provide higher image quality and quantitative information. These approaches, however, require substantially more processing power, which can make them less suitable for real-time applications. Our results show that the DAS method achieves real-time performance while delivering better image quality for an ex vivo elongated target, whereas both the IMMI and the FDMB methods provide enhanced detail and resolution for thin-slice targets, at the cost of considerably slower reconstruction times. The TR method achieves reasonable resolution and detail for all cases but shows the slowest image reconstruction time. This work highlights the strengths and limitations of each method, offering valuable insights into selecting the most appropriate reconstruction technique for ring-array PACT systems.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"72 10","pages":"1376-1387"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144882748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Fully Populated Transrectal Array for Boiling Histotripsy Ablation of the Prostate","authors":"Pavel B. Rosnitskiy;Gilles P. L. Thomas;Gerald L. Lee;Vera A. Khokhlova;Oleg A. Sapozhnikov;George R. Schade;Kyle P. Morrison;Francisco Chavez;Tatiana D. Khokhlova","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3596780","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3596780","url":null,"abstract":"The endorectal ultrasound (US)-guided thermal ablation of prostate cancer (PCa) using high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a widely used focal intervention. While generally safe and effective, it is not without challenges associated with heat diffusion and prefocal heating, which has spurred interest toward nonthermal and mechanical HIFU ablation regimes. Another challenge is the necessity to mechanically translate the HIFU transducer—commonly single-element or annular array—for volumetric treatments, which results in target shifts and transducer position readjustment. The 2-D arrays would address this problem, but their design is challenging in a small form factor. The element pattern must be tightly packed and aperiodic to maximize the active surface area and to suppress grating lobes, respectively. Here, we report on the design, fabrication, and performance evaluation of a 1.5-MHz 128-element transrectal HIFU array driven by Verasonics system capable of mechanical tissue ablation via boiling histotripsy (BH) under real-time coaxial US imaging guidance. A recently developed method for designing randomized, fully populated mosaic arrays was used to create the element pattern. The measured focus steering ranges of the fabricated array were 26 mm axially and 12 mm laterally in the BH regime, with driving voltage compensation by less than 43% and no grating lobe formation. Stress tests with a five-element prototype confirmed safe operating voltage of 850-V peak-to-peak, corresponding to the acoustic intensity of 542 W/cm2 at the array surface. The array integrated with a 128-element US imaging probe driven by the same Verasonics system was successfully used to produce volumetric BH lesions in polyacrylamide (PAA) tissue-mimicking phantoms.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"72 10","pages":"1336-1351"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144798971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of an Endoscopic Ultrasound Device for Delivering Microbubble-Mediated Cavitation in the Pancreas: Characterization and Preclinical In-Vivo Results","authors":"Adrien Rohfritsch;Andrew Drainville;Birane Beye;Gilles Renault;Jessica Gannon;Jeffrey Woodacre;Yao Chen;Laura Barrot;Stéphan Lagonnet;Maxime Lafond;Frédéric Prat;Cyril Lafon","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3596530","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3596530","url":null,"abstract":"Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a poor prognosis and limited treatment options. Focused ultrasound (FUS) has shown potential for improving PDAC treatment outcomes by enhancing drug delivery through acoustic cavitation. In this article, we present the development of a prototype endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) device capable of producing microbubble-mediated cavitation with ultrasound imaging for treatment guidance. The performance of the therapy array, composed of 64 piezoelectric elements, was characterized up to voltages of 60 V peak, achieving negative pressures of 6.55 MPa in water for a focal distance of 20 mm. High image quality as well as the feasibility of generating cavitation activity in the pancreatic parenchyma were demonstrated in vivo in a porcine model. Future work will focus on demonstrating its potential as a potentiator of chemotherapeutic treatment for PDAC, paving the way for a new minimally invasive approach to PDAC treatment.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"72 10","pages":"1364-1375"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144794322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Generalized Acoustic Framework for Multilayer Piezoelectric Platforms","authors":"Jack Kramer;Ruochen Lu","doi":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3595433","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TUFFC.2025.3595433","url":null,"abstract":"Recent advances in thin-film transfer and ferroelectric poling have enabled the realization of multilayer piezoelectric films with spatially dependent polarization. Consequently, while conventional piezoelectric acoustic design leverages single orientations, researchers have recently begun exploring periodically poled piezoelectric films (P3Fs) to enhance performance. These platforms open the doors to new topologies, leveraging multiple piezoelectric orientations simultaneously for an application-optimized design. However, the complexities of these designs are nontrivial and require a detailed analysis of the material system under transformation and spatial variation. While many works have presented partial explanations within the context of their specific material system, a generalized acoustic framework that can be directly applied to any material system or design remains missing. In this work, we present a general acoustic framework for treating P3F platforms, which can then be directly applied to any system. Employing this framework, designers can rapidly test the feasibility of multilayer piezoelectric configurations in pursuit of enhanced performance.","PeriodicalId":13322,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control","volume":"72 9","pages":"1302-1311"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144784231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}