High sensitivity transparent capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer linear arrays for optical, photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging

Abstract

We introduce transparent TOBE CMUT arrays for multimodal optical camera imaging, ultrasound imaging and photoacoustic imaging. We used an adhesive wafer bonding process technique to fabricate the 128-element lambda-pitch transducers and achieve high transparency ranging from visible to near-infrared with ultrasound center frequencies of 7.5-9 MHz. The arrays are anticipated to have utility for endoscopic, intravascular, and intra-operative probes for multimodal interventional guidance.