Fountain Effect Produced by an Ultrasound Field

Ultrasound-induced lung damage in animals can be produced at acoustic pressure levels currently used in diagnostic ultrasound imaging systems. A simplified in vitro model for the region near the lung pleural surface is a water-air interface, a model that is being investigated to assess a potential lung damage mechanism. When a focused ultrasound wave is normally incident from water onto the water-air interface, the water surface is displaced upward. The water surface displacement images were photographed (Nikon E2 digital camera) at a water-air boundary. The 6-cm-diameter 3.32-MHz f/2.25 focused ultrasound source has a free-field pulse-echo -6-dB beamwidth at the focus of 1.2 mm. The focus is at the water-air interface. The free-field in vitro peak rarefactional pressures (left to right, then up to down) at the focus are 0.6, 1.1, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2 and 2.5 MPa. Their respective temporal-average intensities at the focus are 0.14, 0.62, 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.8, 2.4, 3.4 and 4.7 W/cm². The pulse duration is 12.4 μs and the pulse repetition frequency is 1 kHz.

Images courtesy of Stacie S. Sakai, James P. Blue, Jr., and William D. O’Brien, Jr., Bioacoustics Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This work is supported by NIH Grant HL58218.)

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Instantaneous Vibration Image of a Piezoelectric Film Sample

The cover image is a three-dimensional image of the instantaneous vibration data of a PZT piezoelectric thin film sample, which are measured with a laser scanning vibrometer. The central protruding region is the electroded area with the electric field applied, whereas the surrounding area is outside the electrode coverage.

Image courtesy of Dr. Kui Yao and Francis Eng Hock Tay, Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Singapore. See article page 112.

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Spectral Profiles for High-Resolution Hemodynamic Ultrasound Investigations

Application of spectral analysis to US echoes backscattered from multiple sample volumes along a selected scan line (top), allows the so-called "spectral profiles" to be generated. Such profiles, reporting the complete distribution of Doppler spectral components generated over the region of interest, are estimated and shown in real-time through a high-speed digital signal processing system. By displaying subsequent spectral profiles in a semi-transparent 3-D plot, images like that on the front cover can be obtained. This image shows the dynamic evolution of blood flow for about two cardiac cycles in the common carotid artery of a healthy volunteer. Spectral profiles are currently employed for high-resolution hemodynamic investigations of peripheral arteries and the aorta, as well as in non-invasive hematocrit measurements.

(Image courtesy of Piero Tortoli, Francesco Guidi, Giacomo Bambi, Stefano Ricci, and Enrico Boni, Electronics and Telecommunications Department, University of Florence, Italy.)

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Atomic Force Microscope Image of a Circular Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (CMUT) Membrane

The figure shows 3D rendered Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) image of a Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (CMUT) membrane. The image maps the static height of the membrane. The membrane material is silicon nitride and the membrane diameter is 46 mm. The total height of the structure is less than 0.5 mm. The cross-like structure on the membrane is the aluminum electrode. The four holes at the corners provide access for the etchant to go under the membrane and to etch the sacrificial layer. Later, these holes are vacuum sealed to obtain a vacuum gap under the membrane.

This figure was previously published in the 2011 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium Proceedings: Goksen G. Yaralioglu, Arif S. Ergun, Baris Bayram, Theodore Marentis, and B.T. Khuri-Yakub, "Residual Stress and Young's Modulus Measurement of Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer Membranes," 2001 IEEE Ultrason. Symp. Proc., vol. 2, pp. 953-956.

Image courtesy Goksen G. Yaralioglu, Stanford University, Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford, CA 94305. See article page 449.

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Polar diagram of time-resolved acoustic microscope signature

This image is a simulated time-domain acoustic microscopy signature plotted as polar diagram by converting the amplitude to a color. The results are for a line-focus cylindrical ultrasonic transducer with half aperture angle 80^o . The radial direction is time t and the polar angle corresponds to the rotation angle φ of the transducer around the normal to the sample surface. The specimen is a unidirectional half space graphite/epoxy composite. La, Lfs and Lss are the lateral longitudinal, fast shear and slow shear waves respectively. The leaky surface wave does not exist in a water-loaded composite and is absent from the microscopy signature.

Image courtesy of Lugen Wang and Stanislav I. Rokhlin Nondestructive Evaluation Program, Edison Joining Technology Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43221, USA.

See article L. Wang and S. I. Rokhlin "Time-resolved line focus acoustic microscopy of layered anisotropic media: Application to composites," IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., and Freq. Contr., vol. 49, no. 9, pp. 1231-1244, Sep. 2002.

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44-MHz LiNbO₃ Transducers for UBM-Guided Doppler Ultrasound

The cover shows a picture of a 44-MHz LiNbO₃ transducer taken during fabrication (top), together with a map of the near-field pressure distribution measured 5.5-mm from the transducer (left) and a Doppler waveform acquired from the dorsal aorta of a 12.5-day mouse embryo (right, displayed in false-color), using the same transducer.

Images courtesy of Orlando Aristizábal and Daniel Turnbull, Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY. See article on page 623.

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Performance Evaluation of Different Clutter Rejection Filters for Ultrasonic Strain-Flow Imaging

M-mode color-flow data are displayed in 3-D plots to show the effects of four different clutter rejection filters. The goal is to eliminate all motion outside the channel without disturbing the flow inside the channel. Steady flow in a 3-mm-diameter channel within a graphite-gelatin phantom is modulated by pulsatile flow in a second channel above the first and centered at -5 mm (not shown). The zero-initialized second-order IIR clutter filter (top left) is unable to suppress the gelatin motion. Step initialization of the second-order IIR filter is more efficient at suppressing clutter but also suppresses flow (top right). The first-order regression filter significantly cancels clutter but disturbs the flow profile (bottom left). Only the (first-order) eigenfilter completely eliminates clutter without disturbing flow velocities (bottom right). Eigenfilters are well suited to separating clutter due to internal deformation from flow, thus facilitating strain-flow imaging for e.g. vascular applications.

Images courtesy of Christian Kargel, Gernot Höbenreich, Birgit Trummer, and Michael F. Insana, University of California, Davis, Biomedical Engineering, Davis, CA, USA. C. Kargel is also with Carinthia Tech Institute, University of Applied Sciences, Medical Information Technology, Klagenfurt, Austria. See article on page 824.

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The Windows’ Shifts in the Extreme Fix Method

The ultrasonic densitometer is based on the multiple reflection technique and is composed of a double-element transducer, sample chamber and reflector. The large aperture receiver eliminates diffraction losses and the accuracy in density measurement is 0.2%.

The image is a schematic of the density measurement cell. From left to right, you have the transmitter, first buffer rod (blue), membrane receiver (thin and grey), second buffer rod (green), sample chamber and reflector. The yellow parts are brass rings used to join the various parts using bolts, and the black dots are o-rings. The double-element transducer is composed of the first four elements.

Image courtesy of Ricardo Tokio Higuti, Dep. Electrical Engineering, Unesp Ilha Solteira, SP, Brazil, and Julio Cezar Adamowski, Dep. Mechatronics Engineering, EPUSP, SP, Brazil.

See article R. T. Higuti and J. C. Adamowski, "Ultrasonic Densitometer Using a Multiple Reflection Technique," IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr., vol. 49. no. 9, pp. 1260-1268, Sep. 2002.

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Single Crystal Ferroelectric Relaxor 67PMN-33PT

Growth of ferroelectric relaxor PMN-PT single crystals has been conducted at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS) since 1996 through a modified Bridgman approach. During these years, a series of technological barriers to the growth of ferroelectric relaxor PMN-PT single crystals, such as making seeds, seeded-orientation control, size-enlargement, uniformity of the grown single crystals, and crucible leakage, have been progressively broken down and solved. As a result, larger-sized ferroelectric relaxor 67PMN-33PT single crystals (approximately 45 × 80 mm³) have been successfully grown and produced in a small mass scale. The as-grown 67PMN-33PT single crystal boles and (001) cut crystal plates (~50 × 65 × 1mm and 40 × 30 × 1mm, respectively) are shown here.

Image courtesy of Chude Feng and Zhiwen Yin, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.

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Two-Dimensional Views of Finite Element Simulations of the Temperature Distribution for High-Intensity Ultrasound Surgical Applicators

The results are steady state solutions for a heat density impinging at the upper surface of the structure (arrows designated the surface and direction of heat flow) from a piezoelectric element. The heat represents loss in the element. Each applicator design is cooled differently: Left image - the surface of the entire conical tip (outlined with arrowheads) is maintained at 30^o C. Right Image - Channels in the upper section at both the left and right of the structure are (outlined with arrowheads) maintained at 26.7^o C.

Image courtesy of Roy W. Martin, Shahram Vaezy, Andrew H. Proctor, Terrence Myntti, Janelle Lee, and Lawrence Crum. R. W. Martin, S. Vaezy, A. H. Proctor, T. Myntti, and L. Crum are with the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. J. Lee is with Raytheon Electronic Systems, El Segundo, CA. See article on page 1305.

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Anomalies in the CW-Field due to a Needle Hydrophone

Images show the simulated effect of a needle hydrophone on a continuous-wave ultrasound field. The diameter of the needle and the PVDF film on the tip of the needle are 1.47 mm and 1.00 mm, respectively. The field is emitted by a 0.5 MHz planar circular transducer. The hydrophone is 10 mm (top row) and 20 mm (bottom row) from the transducer. The left column shows the total fields and the right column presents the differences with the undisturbed field. See article on page 1486.

Images courtesy of Tomi Huttunen, Jari P Kaipio, Kullervo Hynynen. T. Huttunen and J. P. Kaipo are with the University of Kuopio, Department of Applied Physics, Kuopio, Finland. T. Huttunen and K. Hynynen are with the Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

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Real-time Rectilinear Imaging Using a Mills Cross Array

The top left figure is a close-up of a 220 × 220 = 48,400 element 5 MHz Mills Cross 2-D array for real-time rectilinear volumetric imaging. The top right image shows a real-time B-scan of wire targets in a tissue-mimicking phantom. The bottom right image is a simultaneous real-time C-scan of the bottom row of wires.

Images courtesy of Jesse T. Yen and Stephen W. Smith, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC.

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