A hand-held row-column addressed CMUT probe with integrated electronics for volumetric imaging

A 3 MHz, λ/2-pitch 62+62 channel row-column addressed 2-D CMUT array designed to be mounted in a probe handle and connected to a commercial BK Medical scanner for real-time volumetric imaging is presented. It is mounted and wire-bonded on a flexible PCB, which is connected to two rigid PCBs with pre-amplifiers for driving the cable to the scanner. The array and PCBs are encapsulated in a 3-D printed handle, and a grounded shielding layer and silicone coating is applied to the front-side of the array for physical and electrical isolation. The handle is assembled together with a 192-channel coaxial cable that connects it to the ultrasound scanner, which supplies the probe with a 190 V DC bias voltage and up to ±75V AC excitation voltage. The probe was successfully connected to a BK3000 scanner and used as two decoupled 1-D phased arrays. Volumetric imaging was demonstrated using the experimental SARUS scanner with 132 volumes/sec.