PFI TT: A Technology Platform to Enable Microsystems with a Wide Variety of Functions

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project lies in the creation of a new processing technology platform that allows the fabrication of microsystems for imaging, processing, and industrial applications. One example application is the ultrasound transducer array that may reduce the cost and improve the image resolution in medical ultrasonic imaging systems.

The transducers of ultrasound imaging systems represent a current global market of > $3 B. The new ultrasound transducers may help advance the trend towards increased capabilities for medical diagnostics at home, integrated with mobile devices to facilitate remote checkups and advanced personal health monitoring. The project will act as a rich training vehicle, covering multidisciplinary topics ranging from understanding fundamental properties of environmentally friendly piezoelectric materials and device structure and integration, to designing elements of medical imaging systems and ultrasonic transducers.

In parallel, the project will provide training in technology entrepreneurship and commercialization for a post-doctoral researcher. The collaboration and personnel exchange with our industrial partners, particularly Xerox, will provide knowledge of commercial processing and market issues as well as useful insights for the academic team and students. Project activities will also promote the participation of women and under-represented minorities.

The proposed project creates a new, low-cost, processing technology platform that allows for the fabrication of microsystems such as large arrays of high frequency ultrasound transducers for imaging, processing and industrial applications as well as miniaturized “chemical and biochemical reactors” with integrated pumps, valves and sensors. The robust new platforms provide capabilities between (and complementary to) silicon-based microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and full scale engineered products.

The project seeks to demonstrate two proofs of concept that involve arrays of piezoelectric transducers. One prototype addresses the need for improved transducers for medical ultrasound imaging - a diagnostic technique that is gaining favor due to its harmlessness and low-cost relative to other medical imaging techniques. The second prototype seeks to enable the development of acoustic tweezers to open up new applications in the control and processing of individual particles and streams of particles, relevant to holographic displays and additive manufacturing.

The successful processing of the prototypes will enable the method to be used as a robust platform to manufacture a wider range of microsystems that integrate multiple sensing, actuation and fluidic functions.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.