Within the scope of a previously completed NIH developmental grant (R33CA99059), we successfully demonstrated a real-time synthetic aperture volumetric ultrasound imaging system for use in an endoscope channel. This system was based on a 16x16-element two-dimensional capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array integrated with front-end transmit-receive integrated circuits. The backend of the system consisted of a 16-channel analog-to-digital converter and a field programmable gate array used for data acquisition and image reconstruction. In a 4-year program, we aim to expand the current system for larger arrays with a larger number of active electronic channels implementing scalable phased array beamforming schemes to improve the image quality. We plan to increase the array size to 32x32 and eventually to 64x64 in this project. The described system will be available for intracavital ultrasound imaging to improve the diagnosis, staging and therapy of various cancers. The clinical validation will be the subject of a follow-up grant.
The specific aims of the proposed work are as follows: 1. Design and construct 32x32 and 64x64-element 2-D CMUT arrays 2. Design front-end integrated circuits for real-time 3-D ultrasound imaging 3. Improve the backend data acquisition system to process more channels in parallel 4. Integrate system components The research team put together for the proposed work combines expertise in the fields of acoustics, system design, signal processing and clinical applications.

Public Health Relevance

The successful development of a real-time, 3-D miniature ultrasound imaging system will significantly improve the accuracy in the diagnosis and therapy of various diseases. We propose to develop an integrated intracavital transducer probe and the supporting imaging system that can be used for numerous applications, in which an image is required to be obtained from within a natural body cavity or an artificial channel such as a laparoscope. Some of the potential applications of this novel probe include preoperative staging of colorectal cancer, real-time interactive transrectal ultrasound guided prostate brachytherapy, and image-guided minimally-invasive transgastric procedures.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01CA134720-01A1
Application #
7651927
Study Section
Biomedical Imaging Technology Study Section (BMIT)
Program Officer
Farahani, Keyvan
Project Start
2009-04-01
Project End
2013-01-31
Budget Start
2009-04-01
Budget End
2010-01-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$569,272
Indirect Cost
Name
Stanford University
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
009214214
City
Stanford
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94305
Park, Kwan Kyu; Oralkan, Omer; Khuri-Yakub, Butrus T (2013) A comparison between conventional and collapse-mode capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers in 10-MHz 1-D arrays. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 60:1245-55
Choe, Jung Woo; Nikoozadeh, Amin; Oralkan, Omer et al. (2013) GPU-based real-time volumetric ultrasound image reconstruction for a ring array. IEEE Trans Med Imaging 32:1258-64
Bhuyan, Anshuman; Choe, Jung Woo; Lee, Byung Chul et al. (2013) Integrated circuits for volumetric ultrasound imaging with 2-D CMUT arrays. IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst 7:796-804
Choe, Jung Woo; Oralkan, Omer; Nikoozadeh, Amin et al. (2012) Volumetric real-time imaging using a CMUT ring array. IEEE Trans Ultrason Ferroelectr Freq Control 59:1201-11
Park, Kwan Kyu; Khuri-Yakub, Brutus T (2012) Dynamic response of an array of flexural plates in acoustic medium. J Acoust Soc Am 132:2292-303
Kothapalli, Sri-Rajasekhar; Ma, Te-Jen; Vaithilingam, Srikant et al. (2012) Deep tissue photoacoustic imaging using a miniaturized 2-D capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer array. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 59:1199-204
Khuri-Yakub, Butrus T; Oralkan, Omer (2011) Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers for medical imaging and therapy. J Micromech Microeng 21:54004-54014
Kupnik, Mario; Vaithilingam, Srikant; Torashima, Kazutoshi et al. (2010) CMUT Fabrication Based On A Thick Buried Oxide Layer. Proc IEEE Ultrason Symp 2010:547-550
Choe, Jung Woo; Oralkan, Omer; Khuri-Yakub, Pierre T (2010) Design Optimization for a 2-D Sparse Transducer Array for 3-D Ultrasound Imaging. Proc IEEE Ultrason Symp 2010:1928-1931
Khuri-Yakub, B T; Oralkan, Omer; Nikoozadeh, Amin et al. (2010) Miniaturized ultrasound imaging probes enabled by CMUT arrays with integrated frontend electronic circuits. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2010:5987-90

Showing the most recent 10 out of 15 publications