Conformable ultrasound breast patch for deep tissue scanning and imaging
Wenya Du, Lin Zhang, Emma Suh, Dabin Lin, Colin Marcus, Lara Ozkan, Avani Ahuja, Sara V. Fernandez, Ikra Iftekhar Shuvo, David Sadat, Weiguo Liu, Fei Li, Anantha P. Chandrakasan, Tolga Özmen, Canan Dağdeviren
Abstract
Ultrasound is widely used for tissue imaging such as breast cancer diagnosis; however, fundamental challenges limit its integration with wearable technologies, namely, imaging over large-area curvilinear organs. We introduced a wearable, conformable ultrasound breast patch (cUSBr-Patch) that enables standardized and reproducible image acquisition over the entire breast with less reliance on operator training and applied transducer compression. A nature-inspired honeycomb-shaped patch combined with a phased array is guided by an easy-to-operate tracker that provides for large-area, deep scanning, and multiangle breast imaging capability. The in vitro studies and clinical trials reveal that the array using a piezoelectric crystal [Yb/Bi-Pb(In 1 /2 Nb 1/2 )O 3 -Pb(Mg 1/ 3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbTiO 3 ] (Yb/Bi-PIN-PMN-PT) exhibits a sufficient contrast resolution (~3 dB) and axial/lateral resolutions of 0.25/1.0 mm at 30 mm depth, allowing the observation of small cysts (~0.3 cm) in the breast. This research develops a first-of-its-kind ultrasound technology for breast tissue scanning and imaging that offers a noninvasive method for tracking real-time dynamic changes of soft tissue.