A miniature rangefinder includes a housing, a micromachined ultrasonic transducer, and signal processing circuitry. The housing includes a substrate and a lid. The housing has one or more apertures and the micromachined ultrasonic transducer is mounted over an aperture. The micromachined ultrasonic transducer may function as both a transmitter and a receiver. An integrated circuit is configured to drive the transducer to transmit an acoustic signal, detect a return signal, and determine a time of flight between emitting the acoustic signal and detecting the return signal.

Micromachined ultrasonic transducers formed in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) wafers are described, as are methods of fabricating such devices. A metallization layer of a CMOS wafer may be removed by sacrificial release to create a cavity of an ultrasonic transducer. Remaining layers may form a membrane of the ultrasonic transducer.

Ultrasonic transmitting elements in an electroacoustical transceiver transmit acoustic energy to an electroacoustical transponder, which includes ultrasonic receiving elements to convert the acoustic energy into electrical power for the purposes of powering one or more sensors that are electrically coupled to the electroacoustical transponder. The electroacoustical transponder transmits data collected by the sensor(s) back to the electroacoustical transceiver wirelessly, such as through impedance modulation or electromagnetic waves. A feedback control loop can be used to adjust system parameters so that the electroacoustical transponder operates at an impedance minimum. An implementation of the system can be used to collect data in a vehicle, such as the tire air pressure. Another implementation of the system can be used to collect data in remote locations, such as in pipes, enclosures, in wells, or in bodies of water.

Circuitry for ultrasound devices is described. A multi-level pulser is described, which can support time-domain and spatial apodization. The multi-level pulser may be controlled through a software-defined waveform generator. In response to the execution of a computer code, the waveform generator may access master segments from a memory, and generate a stream of packets directed to pulsing circuits. The stream of packets may be serialized. A plurality of decoding circuits may modulate the streams of packets to obtain spatial apodization.

An ultrasonic transducer that can include a driver side and a bias voltage side. A higher voltage source can be electrically connected to the bias voltage side through a first resistor. A lower voltage source can be electrically connected to the driver side of through a second resistor. A field effect transistor or other suitable switch can be included, having a source, a gate and a drain. The source can be electrically connected to ground and the gate can be electrically connected to a control signal source. The drain can be electrically connected to the lower voltage source through a second resistor and be electrically connected to the driver side of the ultrasonic transducer. The gate can be electrically connected to a signal source through a third resistor.

The present disclosure provides an ultrasonic transducer unit and a manufacturing method thereof. The ultrasonic transducer unit includes a substrate, a first electrode arranged on the substrate, an insulating layer arranged on the first electrode, a vibrating film arranged on the insulating layer, a closed cavity being between the vibrating film and the insulating layer, and a second electrode arranged on the vibrating film. The vibrating film is made of a photoresist. The ultrasonic transducer unit disclosed by the present disclosure adopts the photoresist as a material of the insulating layer and/or the vibrating film, so that the ultrasonic transducer unit with better performance can be obtained.

An array of CMUT cells (10) has a DC bias voltage (VB) coupled to the membrane and floor electrodes of the cells to bias the electrode to a desired collapsed or partially collapsed state. The low voltage or ground terminal of the DC bias supply is coupled to the patient-facing membrane electrodes (20) and the high voltage is applied to the floor electrodes (22). An ASIC for controlling the CMUT array is located in the probe (100) with the array. The ASIC electronics are electrically floating relative to ground potential of the ultrasound system (150) to which the CMUT probe is connected. Control (82) and signal (84) lines are coupled to the CMUT probe by level shifters (90) which translate signals to the floating potential of the ASIC and provide DC isolation between the CMUT probe and the ultrasound system.

Micromachined ultrasonic transducers formed in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) wafers are described, as are methods of fabricating such devices. A metallization layer of a CMOS wafer may be removed by sacrificial release to create a cavity of an ultrasonic transducer. Remaining layers may form a membrane of the ultrasonic transducer.

An ultrasonic imaging device includes a plurality of ultrasonic transducers arranged in an array of a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, the array being divided into a plurality of sub-arrays of neighboring transducers, each including a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, the device including, for each sub-array: a single transmit and/or receive circuit; and a combiner selector and/or splitter selector circuit configurable to couple any, alone, of the transducers of the sub-array to the transmit and/or receive circuit of the sub-array, or to simultaneously couple a plurality of the transducers of the sub-array to the transmit and/or receive circuit of the sub-array. The device further includes a control circuit adapted to individually controlling the combiner selector and/or splitter selector circuits of the different sub-arrays.

Described herein are methods and systems for testing transducers and associated integrated circuits. In some cases, a method or system described herein can comprise modulating a bias voltage using a test signal in order to produce a modulated bias voltage signal useful in testing a plurality of transducers of a transducer array in parallel.