Sensors and Actuators A, 41-42 (1994) 167-173

167

An

integrated multi-element array transducer for ultrasound imaging

J.V.

Haffiele*,

N R. Scales,

A.D.

Armitage,

P.J. Hrcks,

Q.X

Chenb

and

P.A

Payne

Deparbnent of EZectncal Engtneemg & Electronrcs, and bLkparhnent of In.vtnanentatlon & Analytuzal Scrence, UMIST, PO Box 88,
Manchester M60 1QD (UK)

Abstract
Much progress has been made towards mtegratmg the electromc ctrcmtry associated with either hnear or phased
ultrasonic array scannmg mto the hand-held case of the transducer The number of wires reqmred to connect
the transducer back to the display system has been dramatically reduced and the path length between transducer
elements and the driver cncults kept to a few nulhmetres To a&eve this new construction, polymer transducer
arrays have been fabricated and the pulse-control cucmtry has been integrated onto custom-destgned
slhcon
chips

1. Introduction
High-resolutron focused beams of ultrasonic energy
are used for rmagmg purposes, for example, by the
medical profession and m non-destructwe testmg Hrghresolution beam focusing 1s achieved by pulsmg the
elements of an ultrasonic array transducer m some
predetermmed manner. This may take the form of a
phased array, which allows for an electromcally steered
beam (sector scannmg), or a hnear array, which typrcally
would allow groups of elements to be pulsed successively
along the array, or even a combmatron of the two
Conventronal multi-element ultrasound transducer arrays are connected by long multr-wrre cables to the
systems electronics and display unit This can cause
numerous problems, mcludmg Interference and reflections along the cables The net effect of these 1s to
make the system signal-to-notse ratio poorer These
effects are magmfied if the system is designed to operate
at higher than conventional ultrasound frequencies (e g ,
20 MHz) [l]

2. Polymers as nltrasonic

transducers

It 1s extremely drfficult and expensrve to construct

high-frequency high-resolution ultrasonic arrays using
conventronal ceramrc prezoelectnc matenals, and vtrtually Impossible when the transducers are to operate
above 10 MHz centre frequency Most of the problems
encountered can be solved by employmg ptezoelectnc
*Author to whom correspondence

should be addressed

0924-4247/94/$07 00 Q 1994 Elsewer Sequoia

SSDI 0924-4247(93)00647-M

All rtghts resewed

polymer materials This 1s due to the unique charactensttcs of these polymers, including ready avatlabthty
m thm-film form, rangmg m thtckness from under 10
pm to several hundred mrcrometres, flex&&y, mechanical robustness, and chemrcal stabity, very high
internal acoustrc and drelectnc losses, malung them
mtnnstcally wide band with very low inter-element
interference or cross-talk, both acoustically and electrically
Polyvmyldenefluonde (PVDF) by itself, and parttcularly wrth certain co-polymers, can be made to exhrbrt
prezoelectnc properties [2] That is, its shape may be
altered by applytng an electric field and, conversely,
deformations of shape cause electrical charge on its
surface A film of PVDF may thus be used as both a
generator and recetver of sound waves Using thin films,
the frequency of the sound produced may extend into
tens of MHz [3] It IS very easy wrth these matenals
to produce arrays of transducers using conventronal
photohthographlc techniques Alummrum IS deposited
on either side of a film of PVDF and is then patterned
by selecttvely etching on one side to form array elements
The other side is patterned into a ground plane, which
covers the active transducer area so that transducer
elements are formed wherever the two patterns overlap
The rear side of the array 1s tilled with a backmg
matenal of appropriate acoustic impedance (typrcally
epoxy resin) to optnmze the acoustic performance of
the transducer Fabncatron of arrays, pre-focused along
one axis, is achieved by surtably deformmg the array
before back-filling (Fig 1)

169

16 clocks, derwed from a smgle source but separated

by one smteenth of the clock penod from each other,
are used To achieve a 1 11s me resolution each of
the clocks has a penod of 16 ns (62 5 MHz) separated
by 1 ns from each other. In th= way high resolution
is obtamed usmg standard CMOS technology In order
to set a pulse delay by this method the most sigmficant
bits of a 19&t delay value are loaded mto a 15-bit
counter of which there IS one per pulse channel The
appropriate counter clock IS selected by the four least
sign&ant bits, by means of a X-to-1 clock multiplexer,
to grve the fine resolution Care must be exercised m
the lay-out of the clock multiplexer, as the propagation
delays from any mput to the output must be identical
A strmg of delay elements is used to produce the
16 phased clocks (Pig 4) The delay element 1s smply
two mverters m senes The speed of the zero-to-one
transition of the first mverter 1s determmed by the
extra pMOS pull-up transistor controlled by V, Thus
the propagation delay of a falling edge from IN to
OUT can be set by the voltage on V, An external
reference clock supphes pulses to the delay hne As
these progress down the delay hne they are stretched
due to the dtierence m propagation tunes for negative
and positwe edges Delay control cmxutry that 1s only
sensitwe to negative-going edges adlusts the control
voltage V, so that the negative edge of the zeroth clock
lures up with the negative edge of the surteenth clock
If these are the same, then the delay for 16 elements
IS exactly the clock period and the delay for each
element 1s exactly one snrteenth of the clock penod
Two control signals are responsible for establishing
V, and are provided by the fhp-flop arrangement of
Fig 5 &,
IS high for the per& from the negatwe
edge on the eighth clock (CLK8) to a negative edge
on the stieenth clock, (CLK16) Ct,, IS high from the
negatnre edge on the eighth clock to a negatnre edge
on the zeroth clock, (CLKO) If the associated penod

Fig 4 Delay-lme schematic diagram and mdwdual delay element

Ftg 5 Fhp-flop arcmtry for generatmg delay control signals

VDD

iiiE+-JA@
Fig 6 Pump-up/pump-down

delay-lockmg nrcmtry

&+< fs,,, then the pulses along the delay hne need
further stretchmg and hence V, needs to ~LX Thus
when Cts16 1s low and the mverse of Ct,,,, (Go), IS
low, the 1 pF capacitor of Fig 6 is charged through
the two pMOS transistors P1 and PZ The potential on
this capacitor 1s the control voltage V, Conversely If
&3,16> h3 0, the pulses on the delay lme are overstretched
and V, must be lowered Thus when both ct8,16and
Cr,,0 are high, the capacitor is dscharged through
nMOSFETS N1 and NZ (Fig 6) The additional transistor
pair Ps and N, allows the control voltage V, to be reset
to zero for mnumum delay
3 2 Tesmg the delay he
Delay-lme test results are shown m Fig. 7 They were
obtained usmg a Hewlett Packard 8180 data generator,
Hewlett Packard 8132 data analyser and a Stanford
Research DG535,5 ps resolution pulse generator This
equipment was controlled via an IEEE 488 bus, by
computer programs wntten 111the c programmmg
language Brretly the output pulse from the DG135 was

170
Delay Lme 5V25 C

18

l&u1square lir

16

Meamred Data Pomts

14

2-

j/s&

, F

12

- 10
2
L 8% 6d 4

&

k f -i
E

?
f

f f, !-I

0 I
-2 :.
-4

8
10
Delay Tap

12

14

16

FIN 7 Delay along delay he as a function of delay element

Any one of 16 delayed clocks can be selected to clock programmable down counters

connected to the D mput of an on-chip fip-flop The

DG135 was tnggered by the delay-hne clock The delay
between the tngger and the mput to the flip-flop could
thus be vaned untd a change of &p-flop output was
observed Thus was done with each of the delay-line
taps connected to the flip-flop clock input by means
of an on-chip multiplexer The phase-&lung mechamsm
should, of course, make the IC self-compensating with
respect to temperature and power-supply vanatlons,
provided that the delay-lme input clock remains stable
All tests indicate that over all conceivable ranges of
interest this 1s indeed the case
4. The integrated piemelectric transducer array
The mam concern 1s to interface the array mth the
on-board ASIC chips m a reliable and smple way The

Potymw

jum

present design is based on a rear filhng method, and

alumma substrates with screen-printed gold patterns
have been used to achieve the reqmred mterfacmg with
on-board electronics The mam part of the array transducer consists of the array stub and the bonding pad
extension, as shown m Fig 8 The array stub comprises
an alumma substrate, the plezoelectrrc polymer film
and the acoustic backing For an mltlal feaslbdlty study,
a 32-element array was deslgned and fabncated Each
array element 1s 0 2 mm wide and 7 mm long v&h an
inter-element gap of 005 mm The alumma substrate
has 32 bonding pads on two of the four sides, and two
bondmg pad extensions were used for easy connection
to the electronics The piezoelectnc polymer film is
glued to the top surface of the substrate and electrode
patterns are produced usmg standard photohthographlc
techmques
One of the cntlcal areas of construetlon 1sconnecting
electrode patterns on the film to the electrode pads
on the alumina substrate This was done by using sdverloaded conductwe pamt The ground electrode was
formed by vacuum coatmg the other side of the plezoelectnc film through the central opening of the ahunma
substrate (Fig 8) Conductive epoxy or pamt was used
to attach an electrIca lead to this ground electrode
A square tube was glued to the lower side of the
alumma substrate and epoxy-based backmg matenals
havmg acoustic Impedances close to that of the polymer
were filled mto the hollow thus formed
Azimuthal focusing effects are achieved by pressing
the front face of the stub structure against a suitable
cyhndrlcal surface durmg the curmg of the epoxy-based
backmg matenals, and different focal lengths can be
obtained by changing the cylinder diameter The two

unth

FIN 8 Transducer assembly before fIxmg pulse-dnvmg clrcmtry Also shown 1s the substrate to wblcb the polymer film IS attached

171

bondmg pad extension boards extend the bonding pads

on the alumma substrate from 0 5 mmX 0 5 mm to
15 mm x 15 mm, makmg direct soldering to the pads
possible They also make It possible to evaluate the
array element usmg an independent pulser and receiver,
without relymg upon the on-board electronic clrcultry
Smce the mam part of this 32-element array assembly
IS only about 12 mmX 12 mm X 10 mm, there IS plenty
of room for the on-board electronic cucuitry and the
whole integrated array can be encapsulated m a handheld case

4 1 hhatunzamn
of pulse-generatingcucurlry
Work has also been successful m mmlatunzmg the
high-voltage pulse generator components
ZETEX
FMMT 415 surface mount avalanche transistors provide
very fast high-voltage pulses whilst occupymg <lo%
of the cucmt area of conventional MOSET pulsers
An array of these surface mount components 1smounted
on the PCB of Fig 9 It measures 12 cmX8 cm and
will also accommodate one of the 16-channel pulser
ASICs One PCB 1s mounted on either side of the 32channel transducer of Fig 9

Pulse Circuitry
(discrete
components)

Fig 9 Prmted clrcult board that carnes the pulse-drwe ctrcuttry One IS attached to either side of the ultrasound transducer

172

5. Array performance measurements

Unlformrty
The untfonmty test was carried out m a water tank
A reflected echo from a plane steel target is obtamed
from each element, usmg the same pulser and receiver
Because of the high preclslon of the electrode pattern
made with pbotohthographlc techniques, the Nnformrty
between the array elements IS excellent The responses
from different elements are vntually rdentlcal
51

-*ml
0

250

(4
Cross-talk
There are two forms of interference between elements
m an array transducer. the electrrcal and the acoustic
cross-talk Electrical cross-talk arrses from the dlelectnc
couplmg between elements and the acoustic cross-talk
1s caused by the propagation of acoustic waves along
the surface of the array For transducer arrays made
from ceramics, cross-talk between elements 1s a major
problem due to the high drelectnc constant and low
internal loss of these matenals For transducer arrays
made from ptezoelectnc polymer matenals, these problems are largely non-exrstent The drelectrrc constant
of PVDF 1s only about 1% of that of lead xrrconate
titanate (PZT) and the internal mecbaNca1 loss IS about
25 times larger The low dielectnc permtttrvrty reduces
the electrical cross-talk and the high mechanical loss
reduces the acoustic couphng As a result, the crosstalk between elements for a polymer array ISvery small
Tlus greatly slmphfies the construction of polymer transducer arrays and there 1svutually no design constramt
on the dlmensrons of the array elements from the
mechanical point of view
Expements
have been carned out to measure the
cross-talk between adJacent array elements A 15 MI-Ix
tone burst wrth 10 V peak-to-peak value was used to
drove one element of the array transducer and the
output from SIXadlacent elements was monitored by
a Ngh-input-mpedance
oscdloscope Typical cross-talk
1s observed to be m the 100 mV range As there 1s
no time delay between mdlvldual signals, we can conclude that mechanical cross-talk IS too small to be
measured

500

Tvncns

52

53 P&e-echo measurementr
These were carried out using a pulser and receiver
uNt The trme-domain waveforms were drgttrxed by a
Tektronix digital oscilloscope (model 7854), and then
sent to a computer for frequency spectrum analysis
Figure 10 shows a typical example of the measurement
results It can be clearly seen that the transducer gwes
a very short pulse (80 nS) and wide bandwidth

16

@)

32

48

6i

Fmqnmcy MHz

Fig 10 (a) Puke-echo response from a smgle array element

and (b) a frequency spectrum sbowmg a ccntre frequency of 32
MHz, bandwxith (3 dB) 24l MHz, pulse duration 180 us
6. Conclusions
New polymer transducer array desrgns have been
produced and an interconnect technology allowing
ASICs to be connected to the polymer transducers has
been devrsed However, further work on the long-term
rehabdrty of tbrs approach is required Work 1s well
advanced towards this objective Indlvldual components
have been fabncated and tested and come up to specification in every respect Most importantly, a genenc
techrnque has been developed, and successfully demonstrated, whrch wrll enable both transrmt and recerve
NulbchaMel
ASICs to be reahxed Current work is
focused on deslgnmg recerve ASICs

The authors acknowledge with gratitude the Science

and Engmeenng Research Counnl of the UK for
provrdmg funding for tbts prolect, and EUROCHIP
for making commerctal rmcro-fabncatton facthtles avallable

173

PA Payne, Medxal and mdustnal apphcatxms of lngh resolutlon ultrasound,l P!tys, E SCL Idnon,
28 (1985) 465-473
H Kaw;u, The p~emelectnc~ty of polyvmyldene fluonde, Ipn
I Appi Fhys, 8 (1969) 975-976
PA Payne and Q X Chen, m C Brook and P D Hanstead
(eds ), Rdabrllty
WI Non-Lksmetwe
Testmg, NDT-88. Pergamon, Oxford, 1989, Ch 10, pp 319-330
Y Aral and T Oshug~, TMC - a CMOS time to dlgtal
converter VLSI, IEEE Thm.s Nuclear SCL, NS-36 (1989)
528-531
A Rothermel and F Dellova, Analog phase measurmg cmxut
for dlgtal CMOS-IW, m
ESSCZRC 98 Copenhagen, Denmonk, Sept 23-25, 1992, pp 331-334

Biographies
John V Hatfield recensed his B SC degree m physics
from the Umverslty of Leeds m 1973 and the M SC
degree from the Umverslty of Manchester Institute of
Science and Technology (UMIST), Manchester, UK,
m 1984 He was awarded a Ph D by the same university
m 1988 for his researches into posItion-sensitive particle
detectors Currently he IS a senior lecturer m the
Department of Electrical Engmeenng and Electronics
at UMIST and technical director of Integrated Sensors
Ltd Ha research mterests are m the area of mtegrated
sensors and transducers
Nlgel R Scales received a B SC degree m physics
from the Umversity of Manchester m 198.5 and an
M SC m VLSI systems engmeermg from UMIST m
1991 He ts currently workmg as a research a-ate

m the Department of Electrical Engmeenng and Electronics at UMIST, where he 1s also completmg work
on a Ph D thesis
An&w D Armtage was awarded a B Eng m electronic engmeermg by Manchester Polytechnic m 1991
and an M SC m VLSI systems engmeermg by UMIST
1111992 He 1s currently a research student m the
Department of Electrical Engmeermg and Electronics
at UMIST, where he IS reading for a Ph D m the area
of integrated ultrasonic transducers
Peter J H&s was awarded a Ph D by the Umverslty
of Manchester m 1973 and Joined the Department of
Electrical Engmeermg and Electronics at UMIST as
a lecturer m 1978, where he is currently professor of
Mlcroelectromc Orcult Design I-hs major research
interests are largely m the area of integrated sensors
and he IS chauman of Integrated Sensors Ltd
QX Chen received his B Eng from the Department
of Scientific Instruments, ZheJlang University, Hangzhou, China m 1982 He was awarded a Ph D m 1989
after studymg m the Department of Instrumentation
and Anabtical Science at UMIST, where he 1scurrently
a research associate HIS current fields of interest are
ultrasonic sensors and mmlature Imaging arrays for
medical applications
PeterA Payne received his Ph D from the Umversrty
of Wales m 1972 He 1s currently professor of Instrumentation and chairman of the Department of Instrumentation and Analytical Science, UMIST His fields
of interest are ultrasonic and acoustic sensors and
systems for medical and mdustrlal applications