Sensitivity of ultrasonic hydrophone probes below 1 MHz

Ultrasonic needle hydrophone calibration in air by a parabolic off-axis mirror focused beam using three-transducer reciprocity

An acoustic field distribution investigation in air requires a small receiving sensor. Needle hydrophones seem to be an attractive solution, and it has previously been demonstrated that needle hydrophones designed for use in water can be used in air. The metrology problem is that an absolute sensitivity calibration is needed, because needle hydrophones are not characterized in air, especially for frequencies below 1 MHz, which is of interest for air-coupled ultrasound. Conventional, three-transducer/microphone reciprocity calibration requires measurements to be done in the far field. However, when transducer diameter is large and the frequency is high, the required measurement distance becomes very large: 3 m for a 20 mm source, transmitting at 1 MHz. Large propagation distance leads to high attenuation and nonlinear effects in air propagation, and distortion and losses accumulate. Small needle hydrophones have low sensitivity, so that high excitation amplitudes would be required, which can lead to transducer heating and increase nonlinearity effects. A derivative of the three-transducer reciprocity calibration method is proposed, where a large aperture transducer is focused onto a hydrophone, using hybrid of plane wave and spherical wave reciprocity. Use of a focused source minimizes the frequency-dependent diffraction effects, and the spherical wave approximation is valid at the focal distance, and low level excitation signals can be used. Focusing is accomplished using a parabolic off-axis mirror. Calibration is in transmission, which reduces the complexity of the electrical measurements. The corresponding equations have been derived for this setup. Calibration of the transducer and needle hydrophone absolute sensitivity is obtained.

Fiber-optic ultrasonic hydrophone using short Fabry-Perot cavity with multilayer reflectors deposited on small stub

A fiber-optic probe with dielectric multilayer films deposited on a small stub is studied for mega-hertz ultrasonic-wave detection in water. The small stub with a short Fabry-Perot cavity and distributed reflectors is attached on the fiber end. The structure is mechanically strong and withstands intense ultrasonic pressure. Ultrasonic waves at 1.56MHz are successfully detected in water with a good signal-to-noise ratio. The working principle and the characteristics are studied by comparing the ultrasonic sensitivity with that of a conventional piezoelectric hydrophone. The distance response and directional response are also investigated.

A PVDF receiver for ultrasound monitoring of transcranial focused ultrasound therapy

Focused ultrasound (FUS) shows great promise for use in the area of transcranial therapy. Currently dependent on MRI for monitoring, transcranial FUS would benefit from a real-time technique to monitor acoustic emissions during therapy. A polyvinylidene fluoride receiver with an active area of 17.8 mm (2) and a film thickness of 110 mum was constructed. A compact preamplifier was designed to fit within the receiver to improve the receiver SNR and allow the long transmission line needed to remove the receiver electronics outside of the MRI room. The receiver was compared with a 0.5 mm commercial needle hydrophone and focused and unfocused piezoceramics. The receiver was found to have a higher sensitivity than the needle hydrophone, a more wideband response than the piezoceramic, and sufficient threshold for detection of microbubble emissions. Sonication of microbubbles directly and through a fragment of human skull demonstrated the ability of the receiver to detect harmonic bubble emissions, and showed potential for use in a larger scale array. Monitoring of disruption of the blood-brain barrier in rats showed functionality in vivo and the ability to detect subharmonic, harmonic, and wideband emissions during therapy. The receiver shows potential for monitoring acoustic emissions during treatments and providing additional parameters to assist treatment planning. Future work will focus on developing a multi-element array for transcranial treatment monitoring.

Development of calibration techniques for ultrasonic hydrophone probes in the frequency range from 1 to 100 MHz

The primary objective of this work was to develop and optimize the calibration techniques for ultrasonic hydrophone probes used in acoustic field measurements up to 100 MHz. A dependable, 100 MHz calibration method was necessary to examine the behavior of a sub-millimeter spatial resolution fiber optic (FO) sensor and assess the need for such a sensor as an alternative tool for high frequency characterization of ultrasound fields. Also, it was of interest to investigate the feasibility of using FO probes in high intensity fields such as those employed in HIFU (high intensity focused ultrasound) applications. In addition to the development and validation of a novel, 100 MHz calibration technique the innovative elements of this research include implementation and testing of a prototype FO sensor with an active diameter of about 10 microm that exhibits uniform sensitivity over the considered frequency range and does not require any spatial averaging corrections up to about 75 MHz. The results of the calibration measurements are presented and it is shown that the optimized calibration technique allows the sensitivity of the hydrophone probes to be determined as a virtually continuous function of frequency and is also well suited to verify the uniformity of the FO sensor frequency response. As anticipated, the overall uncertainty of the calibration was dependent on frequency and determined to be about +/-12% (+/-1 dB) up to 40 MHz, +/-20% (+/-1.5 dB) from 40 to 60 MHz and +/-25% (+/-2dB) from 60 to 100 MHz. The outcome of this research indicates that once fully developed and calibrated, the combined acousto-optic system will constitute a universal reference tool in the wide, 100 MHz bandwidth.

Progress in medical ultrasound exposimetry

Biomedical applications of ultrasound have experienced tremendous growth over the past 50 years. Early work in thermal therapy and surgery soon was followed by diagnostic imaging and Doppler. Because patient safety was an important issue from the beginning, the study of methods for measuring exposure levels, and their relationship to possible biological effects, paralleled the growth of the various therapeutic and diagnostic techniques. The diverse conditions of use have presented a range of exposure measurement challenges, and the sensors and techniques used to evaluate ultrasound fields have had to evolve as new or expanded clinical applications have emerged. In this paper some of the more notable of these developments are presented and discussed. Topics covered include devices and techniques, methods of calibration, progress in standardization, and current problem areas, including the effects of nonlinear propagation. Some early methods are described, but emphasis is given to more recent work applicable to present and future uses of ultrasound in medicine and biology.

1-3 piezoelectric composite transducers for swept-frequency calibration of hydrophones from 100 kHz to 2 MHz

Rapid calibration of hydrophones used in biomedical ultrasound is possible with swept frequency techniques such as time delay spectrometry. However, calibrations below 2 MHz largely have been neglected because of insufficient transmitting transducer bandwidth, even though important medical applications operate in this range. To address this deficiency, several transmitting transducer designs were developed and tested, and two 1-3 piezoelectric composite designs were found to have the requisite bandwidth and uniformity of response. In one the element has a plane front face and spherically concave back face (plano-concave), and in the second both faces are concave, but with different radii of curvature (biconcave). The nonuniform thickness disperses the thickness resonance, and the composite structure suppresses radial-mode resonances. Also, the composite's lower acoustic impedance provides a more efficient match to water. The piezoelectric composite transducers were found to have transmitting pressure sensitivities superior to ceramic single-element and segmented designs having similar dimensions, and their responses were significantly more uniform (< 25 dB variation from 0.1-2 MHz, with < 1 dB fine structure variation), likely due to decreased contributions from radial modes.

Microparticle column geometry in acoustic stationary fields

Particles suspended in a fluid will experience forces from stationary acoustic fields. The magnitude of the force depends on the time-averaged energy density of the field and the material properties of the particles and fluid. Forces acting on known particles smaller than 20 microm were studied. Within a 500 kHz acoustic beam generated by a plane-piston circular source, observations were made of the geometry of the particle column that is formed. Varying the acoustic energy altered the column width in a manner predicted by equations for the primary acoustic radiation force from scattering of particles in the long-wavelength limit. The minimum pressures required to trap gas, solid, and liquid particles in a water medium at room temperature were also estimated to within 12%. These results highlight the ability of stationary acoustic fields from a plane-piston radiator to impose nano-Newton-scale forces onto fluid particles with properties similar to biological cells, and suggest that it is possible to accurately quantify these forces.

Determination of sensitivity versus frequency characteristics of miniature ultrasonic hydrophones below 1 MHz using planar scanning technique

OBJECTIVE

To develop and optimize a rapid and reliable ultrasonic hydrophone calibration procedure suitable for use in the frequency range from 100 to 1000 kHz.

METHODS

Planar scanning technique was developed to determine the low-frequency response (<1 MHz) of an ultrasonic polyvinylidene difluoride membrane hydrophone probe.

RESULTS

The frequency response of a bilaminar membrane design is presented in terms of end-of-cable voltage sensitivity versus frequency from 0.3 to 1 MHz and compared with the sensitivity data determined by other calibration techniques. The experimental data indicate that the sensitivity variation of the hydrophone determined by using the planar scanning technique is approximately +/-1 dB, which agrees well with that obtained using independent calibration methods.

CONCLUSIONS

The planar scanning technique is suitable for absolute calibration of hydrophone probes in the frequency range below 1 MHz to within +/-1 dB. Also, the approach developed offers an alternative to other primary calibration techniques such as the reciprocity or broadband pulse technique. The results of this work are important for correctly determining the mechanical index, which is widely accepted as a predictor of potential bioeffects.