Large Matrix Array Aperture for 3D Vascular Imaging Capture

Three-dimensional ultrasound has initially been used to address volumetric imaging for diagnostic purposes and represents the leading-edge technological orientation in both transducer and IC (integrated circuit) architecture and design. However, new applications are coming up like biomarker measurements, preoperative navigation, real time surgery guidance or therapeutic procedures where 3D ultrasound modalities are key but their design objectives may need to be thought outside 3D echocardiography and radiology technological trade-offs. For those new applications, system architectures would need less complexity and imaging performances enabling easier hardware reconfigurability tailored to application-oriented imaging. This paper presents an ongoing development where a large matrix transducer has been assembled with multiple ASIC dies in a reconfigurable way. The transducer has a central frequency of 8MHz, a square pitch of 150 mu m x 150 mu m capable to fully image the upper carotid window thanks to a large aperture of 80x240 elements, resulting in a transducer active footprint of 12x36 square millimeters.