Piezofibre composite transducers for next generation 3D USCT

At the Karlsruhe Institue of Technology (KIT), a 3D-Ultrasound Computer Tomography (3D-USCT) medical imaging system for early breast cancer detection is currently developed. With the next generation of 3D-USCT 2.5, the current region of interest (ROI) of 10 x 10 x 10 cm³ shall be increased to 20 x 20 x 20 cm³ to allow reliable imaging results also for bigger female breasts. Therefore, the opening angle (OA) of the future transducers should be increased to approx. 60 ° at 3 dB while other characteristics such as bandwidth (BW) and resonance frequency should be preserved or even improved. Based on Fraunhofer IKTS Piezofibre composites utilized for transducer production, an optimization is performed on piezoelectric sensor geometry and size, type and structure of matching and backing layer and interconnection technology of the several parts of the transducer