A low pull-in SU-8 based Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer for medical imaging applications

In this paper we present a thorough analysis of a low pull-in voltage Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (CMUT) using SU-8 as the membrane material. It is designed to operate at 1 MHz frequency that has a wide range of applications including the imaging of deeper organs. We also propose a simple state-of-the-art fabrication methodology for the same. As compared to the standard Silicon Nitride CMUTs, the proposed structure gives the same electromechanical coupling coefficient with lower membrane dimensions and low pull-in voltage which in turn results in reduced area and power consumption. Moreover the proposed fabrication methodology is a low temperature process which makes it CMOS compatible.