Smallest ultrasound detector

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany, have announced the world’s smallest ultrasound detector. It is based on miniaturized photonic circuits on top of a silicon chip with a size 100 times smaller than the average human hair. The new detector can visualize features that are much smaller than previously possible with conventional piezoelectric ultrasound sensors giving what is known as super-resolution imaging. Called the silicon waveguide-etalon detector, or SWED, the device works by picking up changes in light intensity as they propagate through the miniaturized detectors. Ultrasound imaging resolution is directly tied to the size of the detectors used and hence this new development offers the chance to image patients tissues in exquisite detail for better diagnoses.

The SWED size is about half a micron (=0,0005 millimeters), corresponding to an area that is at least 10,000 times smaller than the smallest piezoelectric detectors employed in clinical imaging applications.