Acoustic Engineering --

Fundamentals
Yayun Wan
Acoustic Medical Devices

APAD
Ultrasound Medical Devices
› A-mode
› 2D
› 3D
› Doppler modes
– Color
– Power mode
– PW
– CW
› Duplex/Triple
› M-mode
› Contrast
› Elastography/Shear Wave
 Ultrasound System Signal Path
› Transmit-receive, 2-way response
Excitation Design

Wave propagation
Transducer Tx
Excitation to focal zone
Impulse response
(2D FFT)

Received Transducer Rx Wave propagation

echo Impulse response back to transducer
(2D FFT)
Tissue interaction

Signal Processing Design

Transducer Design Beamforming Design
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Ultrasound beam in tissue involves
– Acceleration and displacement
– Forces and stress
– Heat
› May modify or even damage biological tissues
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› How to quantify the acoustic exposure?
– Acoustic power: the rate at which ultrasound energy is
transmitted into the medium
› Units: watts (W) or milliwatts (mW)
› Typical acoustical power emitted by a diagnostic ultrasound transducer is
on the order of 10 mW.
– Acoustic intensity: acoustic power per unit area
› Units: W/m2, or mW/cm2
› Take into account the spatial distribution
– Pressure amplitude:
› The positive/negative peak pressure amplitude in the acoustic field
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Measurements
– Measurement of power
› Radiation force balance
– For example: 8 mW power produces radiation force approximately equal to the
weight of a stationary drop of water 1 mm in diameter.
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Measurements
– Measurement of power
› Hydrophone: a tiny piezoelectric element
– Measure the acoustic pressure at various points
– Calculate the time average intensity
– Calculate the power
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Specifying the acoustic intensity
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Specifying the acoustic intensity
– ITP: temporal peak intensity
– IMAX: the intensity averaged over half-cycle (giving largest value)
– IPA: the average intensity during the time of the acoustical pulse
– ITA: the time average intensity, averaging over the entire line
length.
–
DF: duty factor
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Specifying the acoustic intensity
– ISPTP: spatial peak-temporal peak intensity
– ISPPA: spatial peak-pulse average intensity
– ISPTA: spatial peak-time average intensity
– IMAX: the intensity averaged over half-cycle at the SP point
– ISATA: spatial-average-time average intensity

𝑊
𝐼 =
𝐴

W: acoustic power
A: area
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Specifying the acoustic intensity
– Example:
› If the ultrasonic power emitted by a 2-cm diameter transducer is 10 mW,
what is 𝐼 at the transducer surface?

𝑊 10 𝑚𝑊
𝐼 = = = 3 𝑚𝑊/𝑐𝑚
𝐴 3.14 𝑐𝑚
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Real-time acoustical output labeling
– Thermal Index (TI): acoustic power produced by the transducer
to the power required to raise the temperature in tissue 1 degree
C.
› TIS: in soft tissue
› TIB: in bone
– Bone absorbs more than soft tissue
› TIC: in cranial bone
– Mechanical Index (MI): related to the likelihood of cavitation
produced with this energy. The value is computed from the peak
rarefactional pressure and the frequency.
𝑃
𝑀𝐼 =
𝑓
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Real-time acoustical output labeling
– Advantages
› Quantify the acoustic output relevant to potential ultrasound bioeffects
› Standardization of safety measurement
– They represent worst-case situations as far as thermal effects
are concerned.
› For example: 0.3 dB/cm/MHz attenuation coefficient is assumed for
calculation
› Ever underestimate?
– Yes, like in Bladder
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Biological effect:
– Thermal effects
› Heat conduction effect
› Perfusion effect
› Absorption effect
– Mechanical effects
› Cavitation: is a mechanical effects, intense ultrasound beams in a fluid can
generate tiny bubbles from dissolved gasses in the fluid. The bubbles
expand and contract synchronously with pressure oscillations in the sound
field.
– Maybe non-cavitation mechanical effects
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Biological effect:
– Thermal effects
› Heat conduction effect
– Transducer self-heating (due to internal electronics)
› The energy is released to propagate into the body.
– This transducer temperature needs to be regulated (normally < = 41 °C).
› To reduce this temperature, cooling mechanisms are designed, especially in
matrix probes.
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Biological effect:
– Thermal effects
› Absorption effect

𝑞 = 2𝛼𝑓𝐼

q: rate of energy/heat absorption per unit volume

𝛼: absorption coefficient
f: frequency
I: intensity
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Biological effect:
– Thermal effects
› Perfusion effect
– Cooling effect of blood perfusion

−𝑡
𝑇 = 𝑇 exp( )
𝜏

𝑇 : stating temperature
𝜏: perfusion time constant

For example, 𝜏 is 14.7 s for kidney, 4000 for fat.

Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Biological effect:
– Thermal effects
› Combined effects: conduction, absorption and perfusion
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Biological effect:
– Mechanical effects
› Cavitation: is a mechanical effects, intense ultrasound beams in a fluid can
generate tiny bubbles from dissolved gasses in the fluid. The bubbles
expand and contract synchronously with pressure oscillations in the sound
field.
– Stable cavitation: the bubbles oscillate with the sound beam
– Transient cavitation: a process in which the oscillation grow so strong that the
bubbles collapse, producing very intense, localized effects, e.g. shock waves.
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Medical Ultrasound category based on bioeffects:
– Diagnostic Ultrasound (~ 100 mW/cm2)
– Physiotherapy
› Apply Ultrasound (normally low frequency 0.75 to 3 MHz) for Physical therapy
– Promote healing
– Loosen muscles and joints
– Relieve pain
– Increase blood flow etc.
– Hyperthermia
› Deliberate heating of a region of he body with ultrasound to selectively arrest the
cancer cells or tumors
– Lithotripsy (Non-Thermal Mechanisms)
› Apply ultrasonic shock wave to selectively break the stone into small pieces for kidney
stones (or gall stones etc.) in vivo without surgery
– High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)
› Real-time ultrasound to perform surgery within body, specifically to produce highly
localized lesions.
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Medical Ultrasound category based on bioeffects:
– Diagnostic Ultrasound (~ 100 mW/cm2)
› Lower power
› Limited/regulated by MI/TI
› Minimum thermal or mechanical effects
› Very safe
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Medical Ultrasound category based on bioeffects:
– Ultrasound Physiotherapy (limited 3W/cm2, normally up to 10
min)
› Reduce muscle spasms
› Treat contractures
› Relieve and heal sports-related injuries
› Relieve pain
› Treat limited joint motion, decrease joint stiffness
› Heat joint structure, decrease joint stiffness, arthritis etc.
› Wound healing,
› Cosmetic and post-cosmetic surgery treatment
– Transducers are normally low-frequency, single-element
transducers
– Results are still not conclusive
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Medical Ultrasound category based on bioeffects:
– Hyperthermia
› This method of hyperthermia involves uniformly heating a tumor to about
41-45 °C for periods of about 30 min to 2 hrs, which appears to be
effective in reducing tumor growth.
› Multi-element applicators have been used at 1–3.4 MHz.
› ISATA ranges from 2 to 10 W/cm2 for superficial applications
› Low duty cycle, high peak intensities up to 1 KW/cm2 for deeper, pulsed
applications.
› In clinical trials, hyperthermia was used with or without radiation therapy
and modest efficacy has been reported.
› Hyperthermia in the 41-45 °C range can significantly enhance clinical
responses to radiation therapy, and has potential for enhancing other
therapies, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy and gene therapy.
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Medical Ultrasound category
based on bioeffects:
– High intensity focused ultrasound
(HIFU)
› Real-time ultrasound to perform surgery
within body, specifically to produce highly
localized lesions.
› Very high local intensities of >1
kW/cm2 of 0.5–7 MHz ultrasound for 5-10
s at the focal spot (60 – 100 °C)
› The lesion produced in tissue typically
may be a few mm, ellipsoidal shape.
› The position of this spot must be
carefully controlled and moved in order
to ablate larger volumes of tissue.
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Medical Ultrasound category based on bioeffects:
– High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)
› Have been approved by FDA for treating uterine fibroids, cardiac ablation,
etc.
› In research, cancer treatment is a major direction.
› Two methods used for image guidance and treatment monitoring are
– magnetic resonance imaging (MR)
› MR imaging can measure temperature changes during therapy, within the
treatment zone of therapeutic ultrasound procedures
– ultrasound imaging
› Ultrasound too, but up to a certain temperature
› Complications:
– Tissue can be boiled and vaporized, the resulting gas can block the penetration
of ultrasound. These events can cause uncontrolled results.
– Create fistula, burn (damage tissue and bone)
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Medical Ultrasound category based on bioeffects:
– Lithotripsy (Non-Thermal Mechanisms)
› Apply ultrasonic shock wave to selectively disintegrate the stone into small
pieces for kidney stones (or gall stones etc.) in vivo without surgery.
› Patient is in a water tank or coupled by a water bag.
› The high-amplitude , high-focal-gain transducer is focused on the kidney.
› The process is believed to be a combination of cavitation and cyclic
mechanical stressing.
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Medical Ultrasound category based on bioeffects:
– Lithotripsy (Non-Thermal Mechanisms)
› The peak pressure can be 30-150 Mpa about 1 us long followed by a
shallower negative pressure about -3 to -15 Mpa about 5 us long
› Center frequency is about 100 – 600 KHz (very high MI)
› Very low duty cycle about 5e-6 to 10e-6 (to eliminate heating effect)
› Repeat about 3000 shock waves until the stones are broken
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Biological effect:
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Biological effect:
– Reversible
– Irreversible
› Permanent damage
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Temptation and time exposure
𝑡=4 T: temperature; t: time

38.5°C: safe to use

41°C: only for 5 min
Ultrasound Bioeffects
› Sensitive soft tissue
– Fetal
– Eye
– Brain