A new technology developed at the Technion enables medical imaging with a very high resolution, close to 10 microns. It is expected to lead to the development of tiny and efficient ultrasound systems and other medical applications
New technology, which enables medical imaging with very high resolution, close to 10 microns, is expected to lead to the development of tiny and efficient ultrasound systems and other medical applications.
The innovative technology, SPADE, is based on leading research Prof. Amir Rosenthal and doctoral student Yoav Hazan from the Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering. It was published in the journal Nature Communications..
Medical ultrasound is an accepted and common tool for monitoring various physiological conditions in internal tissues. Its great advantage is that, unlike CT scans and X-rays, it is not based on ionizing radiation, which is considered dangerous in high doses. The main component in ultrasound systems is the transducer - an electrical device that transmits and receives ultrasound waves.
One of the technological challenges in the world of ultrasound is the development of endoscopic transducers - tiny transducers inserted through a tiny hole in the skin, or through one of the natural perforations in the body in a minimally invasive procedure. Such transducers are essential because scanning small areas of tissue requires a small transducer that reaches close to the target tissue.
The challenge in the development of these transducers stems in part from the fact that the miniaturization of the transducer damages its sensitivity and therefore makes it difficult to create high quality images. The SPADE (silicon-photonics acoustic detector) technology developed by Technion researchers is based on Optical components instead of electrical components, thus changing the picture, literally; It provides the possibility of conducting endoscopic ultrasound examinations with resolutions that have not been achieved with this method so far. The researchers emphasize that the new technology could bring about a dramatic improvement in the resolution of additional diagnostic methods such as vascular imaging with the help of optoacoustics. Indeed, the article presents a mapping of blood vessels in a mouse ear with an unprecedented resolution (about 10 microns).
The research was supported by the Russell Berry Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion (RBNI), the National Science Foundation, the Polk Foundation, the Israel Innovation Authority and the Ollendorf Minerva Center.
For an article in the journal Nature Communications
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