Systematic Review of Commercially Available Clinical CMUT-Based Systems for Use in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Products, Applications, and Performance
An emerging alternative to conventional piezoelectric technologies, which continue to dominate the ultrasound medical imaging (US) market, is Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs). Ultrasound transducers based on this technology offer a wider frequency bandwidth, improved cost-effe...
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MDPI AG
2025-04-01
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/7/2245 |
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| author | Ahmed Sewify Maria Antico Laith Alzubaidi Haider A. Alwzwazy Jacqueline Roots Peter Pivonka Davide Fontanarosa |
| author_facet | Ahmed Sewify Maria Antico Laith Alzubaidi Haider A. Alwzwazy Jacqueline Roots Peter Pivonka Davide Fontanarosa |
| author_sort | Ahmed Sewify |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | An emerging alternative to conventional piezoelectric technologies, which continue to dominate the ultrasound medical imaging (US) market, is Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs). Ultrasound transducers based on this technology offer a wider frequency bandwidth, improved cost-effectiveness, miniaturized size and effective integration with electronics. These features have led to an increase in the commercialization of CMUTs in the last 10 years. We conducted a review to answer three main research questions: (1) What are the commercially available CMUT-based clinical sonographic devices in the medical imaging space? (2) What are the medical imaging applications of these devices? (3) What is the performance of the devices in these applications? We additionally reported on all the future work expressed by modern studies released in the past 2 years to predict the trend of development in future CMUT device developments and express gaps in current research. The search retrieved 19 commercially available sonographic CMUT products belonging to seven companies. Four of the products were clinically approved. Sonographic CMUT devices have established their niche in the medical US imaging market mainly through the Butterfly iQ and iQ+ for quick preliminary screening, emergency care in resource-limited settings, clinical training, teleguidance, and paramedical applications. There were no commercialized 3D CMUT probes. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4088b5e6034a4ef49cdb86fce56dfd30 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj-art-4088b5e6034a4ef49cdb86fce56dfd302025-08-20T02:09:21ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-04-01257224510.3390/s25072245Systematic Review of Commercially Available Clinical CMUT-Based Systems for Use in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Products, Applications, and PerformanceAhmed Sewify0Maria Antico1Laith Alzubaidi2Haider A. Alwzwazy3Jacqueline Roots4Peter Pivonka5Davide Fontanarosa6School of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, 2 George St., Brisbane, QLD 4000, AustraliaCentre for Biomedical Technologies (CBT), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4000, AustraliaSchool of Mechanical Medical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, 2 George St., Brisbane, QLD 4000, AustraliaSchool of Mechanical Medical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, 2 George St., Brisbane, QLD 4000, AustraliaSchool of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, 2 George St., Brisbane, QLD 4000, AustraliaCentre for Biomedical Technologies (CBT), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4000, AustraliaSchool of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus, 2 George St., Brisbane, QLD 4000, AustraliaAn emerging alternative to conventional piezoelectric technologies, which continue to dominate the ultrasound medical imaging (US) market, is Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs). Ultrasound transducers based on this technology offer a wider frequency bandwidth, improved cost-effectiveness, miniaturized size and effective integration with electronics. These features have led to an increase in the commercialization of CMUTs in the last 10 years. We conducted a review to answer three main research questions: (1) What are the commercially available CMUT-based clinical sonographic devices in the medical imaging space? (2) What are the medical imaging applications of these devices? (3) What is the performance of the devices in these applications? We additionally reported on all the future work expressed by modern studies released in the past 2 years to predict the trend of development in future CMUT device developments and express gaps in current research. The search retrieved 19 commercially available sonographic CMUT products belonging to seven companies. Four of the products were clinically approved. Sonographic CMUT devices have established their niche in the medical US imaging market mainly through the Butterfly iQ and iQ+ for quick preliminary screening, emergency care in resource-limited settings, clinical training, teleguidance, and paramedical applications. There were no commercialized 3D CMUT probes.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/7/2245capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducerscommercial CMUT probescommercial ultrasoundCMUT performancehandheld ultrasoundhigh-end CMUT probes |
| spellingShingle | Ahmed Sewify Maria Antico Laith Alzubaidi Haider A. Alwzwazy Jacqueline Roots Peter Pivonka Davide Fontanarosa Systematic Review of Commercially Available Clinical CMUT-Based Systems for Use in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Products, Applications, and Performance Sensors capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers commercial CMUT probes commercial ultrasound CMUT performance handheld ultrasound high-end CMUT probes |
| title | Systematic Review of Commercially Available Clinical CMUT-Based Systems for Use in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Products, Applications, and Performance |
| title_full | Systematic Review of Commercially Available Clinical CMUT-Based Systems for Use in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Products, Applications, and Performance |
| title_fullStr | Systematic Review of Commercially Available Clinical CMUT-Based Systems for Use in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Products, Applications, and Performance |
| title_full_unstemmed | Systematic Review of Commercially Available Clinical CMUT-Based Systems for Use in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Products, Applications, and Performance |
| title_short | Systematic Review of Commercially Available Clinical CMUT-Based Systems for Use in Medical Ultrasound Imaging: Products, Applications, and Performance |
| title_sort | systematic review of commercially available clinical cmut based systems for use in medical ultrasound imaging products applications and performance |
| topic | capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers commercial CMUT probes commercial ultrasound CMUT performance handheld ultrasound high-end CMUT probes |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/7/2245 |
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