Noncontact Laser Ultrasound (NCLUS) for Medical Imaging
Category: Analytical/Test
Developers: MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Co-Developers: Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Ultrasound Research Translation (CURT) and Sound & Bright, LLC
United States
Product Description:NCLUS is a versatile novel laser system that acquires ultrasound images of human tissue without touching a patient. NCLUS enables new low-variability ultrasound imaging concepts that have the potential to offer capabilities comparable to MRI and CT at vastly lower cost and in a portable and automated system.
Developers: MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Co-Developers: Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Ultrasound Research Translation (CURT) and Sound & Bright, LLC
United States
Product Description:NCLUS is a versatile novel laser system that acquires ultrasound images of human tissue without touching a patient. NCLUS enables new low-variability ultrasound imaging concepts that have the potential to offer capabilities comparable to MRI and CT at vastly lower cost and in a portable and automated system.
The NCLUS clinical ultrasound platform consists of a portable armature and optical head. The armature enables versatile patient viewing for ultrasound acquisition. The optical head houses miniaturized laser componentsan ultrasound source and laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) with flexible optical fibersthat generate and measure ultrasound in any desired array layout. The LDV system has two simultaneous receiver channels, which provide 0.510 MHz ultrasound bandwidth that yields image resolution comparable to that of state-of-the-art medical ultrasound. We have patented the optical wavelength selection and operational parameters that provide a consistent noncontact ultrasound source. The LDV employs a second patented detector design that balances the speckle variability from skin and tissue, making a consistent ultrasound receiver. The optical head also houses a high-frame-rate camera that records rapidly scanned laser positions on the skin surface. Laser positioning is automated using programmable fast-steering mirrors and is registered to provide a fixed reference frame and 3D volumetric images similar to those of MRI and CT.