Applications of Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers: A Comprehensive Review.

Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (CMUT) was introduced as an alternative to the piezoelectric thick film-based transducers in medical imaging applications. Gradually, CMUTs have been investigated in almost all the applications in acoustics; thanks to the superior transduction properties. CMOS compatible process flow and limitless possibilities of miniaturization made CMUT a preferred choice for the ultrasound industry. This paper comprehensively reviews all the applications in which CMUT was used, till date. Such a complete review of the practical applications of CMUT has not been reported elsewhere. A topic-wise presentation approach is adopted, and wherever possible, the necessary details of the device properties and experimental niceties were briefly covered.