A PMN-PT micromachined 1–3 composite circular array for IVUS

In this paper, a single crystal PMN-PT micromachined 1-3 composite circular array (50 element, ~2.2 mm in diameter) was developed for intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging. Micromachined 1-3 composites with frequency of XX MHz were first fabricated and tested. Array elements with a pitch of 140-micron were interconnected via a customized flexible circuit. Pulse-echo tests showed the average center frequency of 40 MHz and the -6 dB fractional bandwidth of 62% for array elements. The -20 dB pulse length was evaluated as 118 ns. The measured crosstalk is less than - 24 dB between adjacent elements. An image of 50 μm steel wire targets was acquired by stacking multiple A-lines. The results demonstrated beam widths exceeding 70 μm axially. Those results imply the great potential of the developed array transducer for the high frequency medical imaging.