Ultrasonic properties of bio-compatible silicone rubbers for matching transit-time piezoelectric transducers for blood flow estimation in coronary vessels

Author

Díez, Luís ; Calás, Héctor ; Ramos, Antonio ; Álvarez-Arenas, Tomás Gómez

Author_Institution

Centre for Phys. Technol., Madrid, Spain

fYear

2011

fDate

18-21 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

852

Lastpage

855

Abstract

The properties of different bio-compatible silicone rubbers (BSRs) are studied with the purpose to determine the best material to fabricate the coupling pad between the piezomaterials and the vessels in an ultrasonic transit time probe to measure the blood flow in coronary vessels. The objective is to reduce the energy loss due to reflection at the interfaces and due to attenuation in the coupling material. In addition, we also seek to eliminate unwanted shear waves. Different BSRs samples are fabricated and studied using two different ultrasonic techniques: air-coupled and water immersion. In addition, the possibility to introduce some material modifications is also discussed.

Keywords

biomedical transducers; biomedical ultrasonics; blood flow measurement; blood vessels; piezoelectric transducers; silicone rubber; ultrasonic reflection; ultrasonic transducers; BSR samples; air-coupled techniques; biocompatible silicone rubbers; blood flow estimation; blood flow measurement; coronary vessels; coupling material; coupling pad; energy loss; piezomaterials; shear waves; transit-time piezoelectric transducers; ultrasonic properties; ultrasonic techniques; ultrasonic transit time probe; water immersion; Acoustics; Attenuation; Couplings; Frequency measurement; Materials; Rubber; Ultrasonic variables measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), 2011 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

ISSN

1948-5719

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1253-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ULTSYM.2011.0208

Filename

6293534