Dual-mode integrated circuit for imaging and HIFU with 2-D CMUT arrays

Successful high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) operation requires a reliable guidance and monitoring method such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or ultrasound imaging. However, both widely used modalities are typically separate from the HIFU system, which makes co-registration of HIFU with cross-sectional imaging difficult. In this paper, we present a dual-mode integrated circuit (IC) that can perform both ultrasound imaging and HIFU with a single 2D capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array, combining these two systems for ease of use. The dual-mode IC consists of pulsers, transmit beamforming circuitry, and low-noise amplifiers for imaging mode and switches for HIFU mode. By turning this switching network on and off, the system can alternately operate the imaging mode and HIFU mode on demand. The dual-mode IC was designed and fabricated in the 0.18-μm HV 4LM process provided by Maxim Inc. We fabricated a 32×32-element CMUT array that has a center frequency of 5 MHz using a sacrificial release process and flip-chip bonded this CMUT array to the IC. With the back-end system, real-time volumetric imaging on the wire phantom and HIFU ablation on ex-vivo tissue were performed respectively.