IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-024-47074-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Flexible large-area ultrasound arrays for medical applications made using embossed polymer structures

Author

Listed:
  • Paul L. M. J. Neer

    (TNO)

  • Laurens C. J. M. Peters

    (TNO)

  • Roy G. F. A. Verbeek

    (TNO)

  • Bart Peeters

    (TNO)

  • Gerard Haas

    (TNO)

  • Lars Hörchens

    (TNO)

  • Laurent Fillinger

    (TNO)

  • Thijs Schrama

    (TNO)

  • Egon J. W. Merks-Swolfs

    (TNO)

  • Kaj Gijsbertse

    (TNO)

  • Anne E. C. M. Saris

    (Radboud university medical centre)

  • Moein Mozaffarzadeh

    (Radboud university medical centre)

  • Jan M. Menssen

    (Radboud university medical centre)

  • Chris L. Korte

    (Radboud university medical centre
    Twente University)

  • Jan-Laurens P. J. Steen

    (TNO)

  • Arno W. F. Volker

    (TNO)

  • Gerwin H. Gelinck

    (TNO)

Abstract

With the huge progress in micro-electronics and artificial intelligence, the ultrasound probe has become the bottleneck in further adoption of ultrasound beyond the clinical setting (e.g. home and monitoring applications). Today, ultrasound transducers have a small aperture, are bulky, contain lead and are expensive to fabricate. Furthermore, they are rigid, which limits their integration into flexible skin patches. New ways to fabricate flexible ultrasound patches have therefore attracted much attention recently. First prototypes typically use the same lead-containing piezo-electric materials, and are made using micro-assembly of rigid active components on plastic or rubber-like substrates. We present an ultrasound transducer-on-foil technology based on thermal embossing of a piezoelectric polymer. High-quality two-dimensional ultrasound images of a tissue mimicking phantom are obtained. Mechanical flexibility and effective area scalability of the transducer are demonstrated by functional integration into an endoscope probe with a small radius of 3 mm and a large area (91.2×14 mm2) non-invasive blood pressure sensor.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul L. M. J. Neer & Laurens C. J. M. Peters & Roy G. F. A. Verbeek & Bart Peeters & Gerard Haas & Lars Hörchens & Laurent Fillinger & Thijs Schrama & Egon J. W. Merks-Swolfs & Kaj Gijsbertse & Anne E, 2024. "Flexible large-area ultrasound arrays for medical applications made using embossed polymer structures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-47074-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47074-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47074-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-024-47074-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hongjie Hu & Hao Huang & Mohan Li & Xiaoxiang Gao & Lu Yin & Ruixiang Qi & Ray S. Wu & Xiangjun Chen & Yuxiang Ma & Keren Shi & Chenghai Li & Timothy M. Maus & Brady Huang & Chengchangfeng Lu & Muyang, 2023. "A wearable cardiac ultrasound imager," Nature, Nature, vol. 613(7945), pages 667-675, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alp Timucin Toymus & Umut Can Yener & Emine Bardakci & Özgür Deniz Temel & Ersin Koseoglu & Dincay Akcoren & Burak Eminoglu & Mohsin Ali & Rasim Kilic & Tufan Tarcan & Levent Beker, 2024. "An integrated and flexible ultrasonic device for continuous bladder volume monitoring," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Yangshuang Bian & Mingliang Zhu & Chengyu Wang & Kai Liu & Wenkang Shi & Zhiheng Zhu & Mingcong Qin & Fan Zhang & Zhiyuan Zhao & Hanlin Wang & Yunqi Liu & Yunlong Guo, 2024. "A detachable interface for stable low-voltage stretchable transistor arrays and high-resolution X-ray imaging," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Jian Li & Shengxin Jia & Dengfeng Li & Lung Chow & Qiang Zhang & Yiyuan Yang & Xiao Bai & Qingao Qu & Yuyu Gao & Zhiyuan Li & Zongze Li & Rui Shi & Binbin Zhang & Ya Huang & Xinyu Pan & Yue Hu & Zhan , 2024. "Wearable bio-adhesive metal detector array (BioMDA) for spinal implants," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Bin Yang & Haonan Wang & Jilie Kong & Xueen Fang, 2024. "Long-term monitoring of ultratrace nucleic acids using tetrahedral nanostructure-based NgAgo on wearable microneedles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Chaojie Yu & Mingyue Shi & Shaoshuai He & Mengmeng Yao & Hong Sun & Zhiwei Yue & Yuwei Qiu & Baijun Liu & Lei Liang & Zhongming Zhao & Fanglian Yao & Hong Zhang & Junjie Li, 2023. "Chronological adhesive cardiac patch for synchronous mechanophysiological monitoring and electrocoupling therapy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Gengxi Lu & Chen Gong & Yizhe Sun & Xuejun Qian & Deepthi S. Rajendran Nair & Runze Li & Yushun Zeng & Jie Ji & Junhang Zhang & Haochen Kang & Laiming Jiang & Jiawen Chen & Chi-Feng Chang & Biju B. Th, 2024. "Noninvasive imaging-guided ultrasonic neurostimulation with arbitrary 2D patterns and its application for high-quality vision restoration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Qian Wang & Yusheng Zhang & Haoyue Xue & Yushun Zeng & Gengxi Lu & Hongsong Fan & Laiming Jiang & Jiagang Wu, 2024. "Lead-free dual-frequency ultrasound implants for wireless, biphasic deep brain stimulation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-47074-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.