Ultrasound Imaging With a 128 Channels Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasound Transducer (pMUT): Single-Line-Transmission vs. Plane-Wave

A linear 128 channels pMUT array is fully characterized by using Verasonics Vantage-256 system to assess the compatibility of pMUTs with existing electronics for medical imaging. The array operates at 1.75 MHz with a 0.214 mm pitch. It is shown that regardless of the number of pMUTs per channel, the receive sensitivity remains at 0.15 µV/Pa. Transmit sensitivity depends on channel intrinsic capacitance peaking at 500 Pa/V @ 3 cm with 15 pMUTs per channel. The array's dynamic range interfacing with Vantage-256 was explored using plane-wave and single line transmission (SLT) acquisition methods for B-mode imaging of a CIRS 055A phantom.