Showing papers by "Goksen G. Yaralioglu published in 2016"

Portable low cost ultrasound imaging system

Abstract: The applications of ultrasound in medicine have been increasing in the last decade either in diagnostics or in treatments. Ultrasound is routinely used in clinical examinations, such as pregnancy exams. On the other hand, a typical ultrasound system costs somewhere between 100k$ to 250k$ because of its (1) expensive ultrasound transducers, (2) large driving electronics, (3) processing and visualization units. High cost and large volume of the ultrasound systems prevent even wider usage of these systems. It is possible to extent the use of ultrasound in clinic environment like a stethoscope, if the size and cost had been reduced orders of magnitude. The aim of this work is to develop an ultraportable and very low cost diagnostic ultrasound imaging probe; by combining inertial sensors with the probes. The manual motion of the probe by the operator's hand movement enables scanning. The position of the probe is tracked using inertial sensors. Finally, the acoustic reflections are registered together by the help of position information of the probe to form an image.

MEMS cantilever sensor array oscillators: Theory and experiments

Abstract: This paper demonstrates that an array of cantilever sensors can be operated simultaneously at resonance using a single actuator and a single photodetector. Self-sustained oscillations (SSOs) of cantilevers can be achieved in a feed-back loop using gain saturation mechanism in the electronics. Multiple cantilevers require separate saturation mechanisms and separate sensing electronics for each channel. We introduced optical non-linearity using diffraction gratings at the tip of each cantilever which provide separate saturation non-linearity, enabling a single detector based oscillator array. Two-cantilever SSO operation is investigated analytically, and the multiple frequency oscillation criteria are established. Cross-coupling between the oscillation frequencies has been investigated by using this multi cantilever model. The proposed model will be helpful to design dynamic‑mode MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical systems) cantilever sensor arrays with the desired functionality and cross-talk levels. This multiple SSO operation can be used in conjunction with dense cantilever arrays for various biosensor applications. Moreover, the model can also be useful to understand the operation of any kind of multiple simultaneous oscillator systems, which employs a single feed-back loop. We also present experimental results that confirm our model.

Optical fiber array based simultaneous parallel monitoring of resonant cantilever sensors in liquid

Abstract: This paper reports a novel method for simultaneous resonance monitoring of MEMS cantilevers using phase based dynamic measurements without any electrical connections to the sensor array. MEMS cantilevers are made of electroplated nickel and actuated remotely with magnetic field using an electro-coil. To our knowledge this is the first demonstration of simultaneous parallel optical monitoring of dynamic mode micro-cantilever array in liquid environment. Illumination is generated using a laser source and a diffractive pattern generator, which provides 500 μW laser power per channel. A compact fiber array based pick-up was built for optical readout. Its main advantages are easy customization to different size and pitch of sensor array, and good immunity to electrical noise and magnetic interference as the photo detectors are located away from the electro-coil. The resonant frequency of the cantilever is tracked with a custom multi-channel lock-in amplifier implemented in software. For demonstrating the stability and sensitivity of the system we performed measurements using glycerol solutions with different viscosities. Measured phase sensitivity was 0.9°/1% of Glycerol/DI-water solution and the standard deviation of measured phase was 0.025°. The resulting detection limit for Glycerol/DI-water solution was 280 ppm. The proposed method showed robust results with low laser power and very good noise immunity to interference signals and environmental vibrations. The sensor technology demonstrated here is very significant as it is scalable to larger arrays for simultaneous and real- time monitoring of multiple biological and chemical agents during fluid flow.

Receive-Noise Analysis of Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers

Abstract: This paper presents an analysis of thermal (Johnson) noise received from the radiation medium by otherwise noiseless capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) membranes operating in their fundamental resonance mode. Determination of thermal noise received by multiple numbers of transducers or a transducer array requires the assessment of cross-coupling through the radiation medium, as well as the self-radiation impedance of the individual transducer. We show that the total thermal noise received by the cells of a CMUT has insignificant correlation, and is independent of the radiation impedance, but is only determined by the mass of each membrane and the electromechanical transformer ratio. The proof is based on the analytical derivations for a simple transducer with two cells, and extended to transducers with numerous cells using circuit simulators. We used a first-order model, which incorporates the fundamental resonance of the CMUT. Noise power is calculated by integrating over the entire spectrum; hence, the presented figures are an upper bound for the noise. The presented analyses are valid for a transimpedance amplifier in the receive path. We use the analysis results to calculate the minimum detectable pressure of a CMUT. We also provide an analysis based on the experimental data to show that output noise power is limited by and comparable to the theoretical upper limit.

A prism-based non-linear optical readout method for MEMS cantilever arrays

Abstract: This paper demonstrates the use of a single right-angle prism for the optical readout of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) cantilever arrays. The non-linear reflectivity arisen from the internal reflection at the right-angle prism’s hypotenuse plane enables the measurement of cantilever deflections. The cantilever arrays used in the experiments are made of electroplated nickel structures and actuated at resonance by an external electro-coil. A laser beam illuminates multiple cantilevers, and then it is partially reflected by the prism. The prism reflectivity changes with the cantilever deflection and modulates the laser intensity at the photodetector. The detection sensitivity of the optical readout system is determined by the initial angle of incidence at the prism’s hypotenuse plane, numerical aperture of the illumination system and the polarization of the laser beam. In this paper, we showed both theoretically and experimentally that self-sustained oscillations of two MEMS cantilevers with simple rectangular geometry is achievable using only one actuator and one photodetector. The gain saturation mechanism for the oscillators was provided by the optical non-linearity in the prism readout, which eliminates the requirement for separate sensing electronics for each cantilever. Based on our analytical and experimental data, we found that the prism incident angle around 41.2° is desirable in the closed-loop system due to high responsivity. Finally, we demonstrated simultaneous self-sustained oscillations of two cantilevers in closed-loop with resonant frequencies in the range 25–30 kHz. It was shown that multiple oscillations are obtainable if the cantilever resonant frequencies are separated from each other by at least 3 dB bandwidth.