Monolithic PMUT-on-CMOS Ultrasound System for Single Pixel Acoustic Imaging

This paper presents a fully operational integrated ultrasound transceiver based on a single piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) monolithically fabricated with a 0.13 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) analog front-end circuitry. The single PMUT-on-CMOS transducer produces ultrasound waves in liquid environment with competitive values, as actuator: 71 Pa*mm*V
^-1
as well as provides a high reception sensitivity (20 V/MPa). These two characteristics allow for an efficient single-pixel pulse-echo system. From time-of-flight experiments with this single PMUT-on-CMOS transceiver, a SNR dependence of 25 dB/z (z, axial distance) is achieved, allowing efficient pulse-echo imaging at 2 mm axial distances. These measurements demonstrate the capabilities of the single PMUT-on-CMOS transceivers for pixel sized acoustic imaging system. In this paper a full characterization of the single PMUT-on-CMOS transceiver is provided.