Project dates: 1 Aug 2008 – 31 Dec 2011

The objective of the Strategic Research Project was to establish the feasibility of developing an ultrasonic imaging technique founded on a novel means of detection of the transmitted acoustic field. The detection technology has been pioneered at NPL and exploits pyroelectric signals generated within a thin piezoelectrically active membrane. The membrane is able to resolve small temperature increases generated by the absorption of the ultrasonic radiation in a special backing material adjacent to the membrane.

NPL staff involved with the project

Bajram Zeqiri
Mark Hodnett
Pierre Gélat
Christian Baker

Collaborations

• New collaboration with Dr Haidong Liang (University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust) through the NIHR i4i Project (won following the work from this project).

Publications

• Progress in developing a thermal method for measuring output power of medical ultrasound transducers that exploits the pyroelectric effect
  B. Zeqiri, G. Zauhar, M. Hodnett and J. Barrie
  Ultrasonics, 51 (4), pages 420-424 (2011)

Conferences and Presentations

• Bajram Zeqiri (International Congress on Ultrasonics, Santiago, Chile) 14 January 2009.
• 'Progress in developing a solid-state sensor that responds to acoustic power or time-averaged intensity': presentation given at the Advanced Metrology for Ultrasound in Medicine (AMUM) meeting held at NPL over the period 12-14 May 2010.
• Mark Hodnett (Ultrasonic Industry Association Meeting, Vancouver, Canada), 25 March 2009. Proceeedings paper.
• Physics in Medical Ultrasound meeting, Institute of Physics in Medicine and Biology, York, UK, 3 March 2009.
• 'Through-transmission medical imaging using phase-insensitive pyroelectric ultrasonic detectors': accepted for oral presentation at the Acoustics 2012 meeting, to be held in Hong Kong over the period 12-15 May 2012.

Further opportunities

Project secured under the 2010–2011 AIR Programme, to look at metrological applications of new technology - namely, an acoustic intensity sensor.

NMO Funding has also been secured to investigate the requirements of metrology and standards for Quantitative UltraSound (or QUS) involving the application of ultrasound to the diagnosis of osteoporosis. This funding will help us develop the technical area further in terms of development and deployment of this highly novel sensor technology. This should also open up new opportunities for third-party funding and the exploitation of new clinical instrumentation.

NPL EPSRC funding won to further develop the science behind the new imaging application through supporting a CASE Student at the Institute of Sound and Vibration, University of Southampton.

Awarded SR proof-of-concept funding to evaluate the potential of the pyroelectric method (development has been part-funded by SR) to the detection of the onset of osteoporosis (QUS).

This Strategic Research Project was used as co-funding in a successful bid for National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme funding. This was as part of the Future Product Development Stream 1. The £100k project entitled 'Enhanced through-transmission ultrasonic tomography for breast imaging using novel phase-insensitive pyroelectric detectors' started on July 2010 and was successfully completed in September 2011.

Discussions are under way with the i4i NIHR Project coordinator at Bristol Hospital, Dr Haidong Liang, to explore mechanisms to bid for new funding. In December this resulted in a project submission to the Third Call of the i4i scheme, addressing the 'Early-stage Product Development'. The project proposal, which addresses the fabrication and testing of a pyroelectric sensor array and its application to clinical tomography, is of total value £380k, and involves collaboration between NPL, Bristol Hospital and Precision Acoustics.

It is anticipated that this development will attract significant interest from medical ultrasound equipment manufacturers, due to the potential improved imaging capability. Whilst it is very early in the commercialisation process, it is possible to conceive this new type of ultrasonic field detection as the basis of a novel and 'smart' breast US scanner, combining phase-insensitive and speed-of-sound tomographic imaging, generating 2D or 3D ultrasound US tomographic images.

Patents

The application of phase-insensitive detectors based on pyroelectric principles to clinical imaging is the subject of International (PCT) Patent application No: GB2010/000095 Ultrasonic Imaging Modality (under publication number WO2010/084319, filed on 29 July 2010).