Conventional ultrasound transducers are rigid devices that have to be held against the skin when imaging inside the body. The best results are achieved on smooth surfaces where contact between the transducer and the skin is the greatest. On curvy, moving surfaces, such as the knees, ultrasound visualizations are difficult.
A team at the University of California San Diego have achieved the development of a flexible ultrasound transducer array that can be attached to curvy surfaces and provide 3D views of objects beneath. As a benefit, it doesn’t require any gels or oils to optimize contact with the surface. Though it seems to have been developed for industrial applications, such as analyzing metal pipes, the technology should certainly be useful in medicine.
The device features 100 piezoelectric transducers arranged in a square array, linked together by flexible connections and placed within silicone elasomers. The ultrasound probe stretches more than 50 % its original length or width, and it’s already been tested on a variety of materials and surfaces, but not yet on humans.
There are a lot of improvements that still need to be made, including being able to produce real-time imaging using the new patch and adding some on-board processing components to optimize its functionality. We do hope that this progresses rapidly, as we envision stick-on ultrasound patches that can keep an eye on the heart, joints, and other organs for long periods of time. This may help doctors diagnose a variety of conditions, such as cardiac arrhythmias with intermittent symptoms, embolisms, fetal heart rates and movements, etc etc.
Study in Science Advances: Stretchable ultrasonic transducer arrays for three-dimensional imaging on complex surfaces…
Via: UC San Diego…