Design of HIFU CMUT Arrays for Treatment of Liver and Renal Cancer

We present the development of a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array for noninvasive focused ultrasound ablation of lower abdominal cancers under MR-guidance. While piezoelectric transducers have been traditionally used for HIFU, recent advances in CMUT design have made them highly competitive. Not only are CMUTs cost effective, they allow fabrication flexibility and advantages in efficiency and bandwidth. Current imaging CMUTs have shown capability of HIFU operation through high power and continuous wave operation. In this paper, we will present the development of CMUT membranes designed specifically for HIFU. These membranes are piston-like membranes fabricated by placing a thick layer of silicon or gold at the center of the membrane. The width of the piston layer is usually 60-85% of the membrane width and allows the membrane mass and elasticity to be controlled independently. It also increases the average displacement and average output pressure of the membrane. We patterned these CMUT membranes into an 8 element, 3.5 cm concentric array. We simulated the heating patterns of this array to show it is capable of producing lesions of 5 mm in diameter within 20-30 seconds, which can be imaged using our MR detection software.