Ultrasonic Medical Imaging System
Ultrasonic Medical Imaging System Customer Case A customer wants to construct an ultrasonic medical imaging system based on a transducer array. A central ultrasonic generation transducer generates a burst of ultrasonic energy which travels towards a tissue specimen. Echoes reflected off the tissue specimen are simultaneously detected by an array of 48 ultrasonic receiver transducers arranged in a dish-like pattern. The customer must simultaneously digitize all 48 signals and download them to PC RAM as quickly as possible. The customer requires 8 bit vertical resolution and would like to sample at 40 MS/s, but 20 MS/s would be acceptable. [...]
CMP and Capacitance-Based Semiconductor Wafer Measurement
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) uses chemical oxidation and mechanical abrasion to selectively remove material from semiconductor wafers in order to achieve very high levels of planarity. The planarity, or flatness, of these wafers is important for optical lithography, a microfabrication technique that produces integrated circuits (ICs) by transferring a geometric pattern from a photomask to a light-sensitive chemical photoresist. Also known as photolithography or UV lithography, optical lithography can produce a geometric pattern on a thin film or directly onto the substrate. Semiconductor Wafer Measurements: Flatness and Shape During optical lithography, variations in wafer flatness must be smaller than [...]
Intra-Vascular Ultrasound
Intra-Vascular Ultrasound Customer Case The customer does intra-vascular diagnostic ultrasound. In this novel technique, an ultrasonic catheter is guided through a patient's blood vessel. Throughout its helical or corkscrew-like path, the ultrasonic transducer-tipped catheter emits bursts of ultrasonic energy. Reflections from the vessel wall return into the transducer and can be used to characterize such features as plaque deposits. The customer wishes to resolve features as small as 3 mm. The amount of time, D t, required for ultrasound to reflect off an interface that is a distance x away and return to the transducer is: D t = [...]
Deep Capture of Medical Sonography Signals
Deep Capture of Medical Sonography Signals Customer Case Medical sonography refers to the use of reflected ultrasonic echoes to image a patient's internal organs. A customer has a commercial medical diagnostic ultrasound system. During its operation, an external probe is placed upon the patient. An ultrasonic transducer within the probe head mechanically scans in a linear frame pattern at a rate of approximately 22 frames/sec. The transducer generates a sharp ultrasonic pulse into the patient and the same transducer detects reflected echoes from various tissue interfaces. In normal operation, the system processes the ultrasonic echoes in a prescribed fashion [...]
MTI Instrument’s PBS ROI Calculator: See How Much Money You Can Save
Ensuring the proper operation of your aircraft engine is essential to complying with manufacturers guidelines for the safety and longevity of the aircraft. Ensuring engines are not operating outside acceptible vibration limits and operating optimally isn't just smart, it is vital to your business. Excessive engine vibration can lead to cracked turbine, fan and compressor components potentially leading to catastrophic failure. The costs of catastrophic engine failure due to an unbalanced engine can measure in the millions of dollars. As airlines push to get more and more life out of their aging fleets, the need to properly maintain the [...]
Laser Scanning Microscope Interface
Laser Scanning Microscope Interface Customer Case This customer needs to interface a scanning laser microscope to their PC so that image data can be acquired and stored. Data is received from the laser microscope via an optical sensor at 1300 line scans per image. Each scan has an 8 ms duration, but 2/3 of that time is scan time and 1/3 is flyback time (dead time). The customer has determined that a 1 us sample width (or faster) would be adequate. There is also a price vs. performance issue - the customer has a tight budget and wants the [...]
Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging (EPRI) Measuring of Tumor Oxygen Levels
Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging (EPRI) Measuring of Tumor Oxygen Levels Customer Case The customer is improving their Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging (EPRI) system that is used for the diagnosis of tumors. Using this non-invasive method, the concentration of oxygen in living tissues can be determined without the need for biopsies. Tumors that have little or no oxygen content (i.e. hypoxia) also have increased resistance to radio-frequency radiation, making it less effective as a choice for cancer treatment. Identifying those patients with hypoxic tumors allow alternative treatments to be used instead. The requirement is to capture the returned RF signals [...]
Transmission Electron Microscopy for Imaging of Biological Molecules
Transmission Electron Microscopy for Imaging of Biological Molecules Customer Case The customer is improving their customized Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) that is optimized for imaging unstained biological molecules with minimal radiation damage. Diffraction-limited resolution of 0.25 nm is routinely obtained with a cold field-emission electron-gun operating at 40 keV. The sample is maintained at about 123 K (i.e. -150°C), both to eliminate contamination and to reduce mass-loss. The scan raster is 512 x 512 points with a dwell time of 30 microseconds per pixel (over 8.5 seconds per raster-scan). For most mass measurements, the pixels are separated by 1 [...]
MEMS and Capacitance-Based Semiconductor Wafer Measurement
MEMS Technology and Capacitance-Based Wafer Measurement Micro-electrical-mechanical systems (MEMS) are tiny devices that house electrical and mechanical components on a single silicon chip or integrated circuit (IC). They integrate mechanical structures with electronics that are normally fabricated with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. In addition to miniaturization, the benefits of MEMS include expanded functionalities at lower cost and with improved performance and reliability. With MEMS devices, critical physical dimensions range from smaller than one micron (µ) to larger than several millimeters (mm). In complex systems, multiple moving elements may be controlled by integrated electronics. Examples of the mechanical components in [...]
Treadmill Power Glitch Monitoring
Treadmill Power Glitch Monitoring Customer Case A customer develops gym equipment such as treadmills. The requirement is for an inexpensive way to monitor voltage signals for long periods of time. The treadmills are controlled by microprocessors that drive the LED displays. The customer has observed that some units intermittently fail during testing, a condition known as a "glitch" or a "brown-out". A glitch can have many causes, one of which is a weak power supply. The customer needs to capture certain key signals when a glitch occurs. At that stage, based on the captured data, it can be determined [...]


