Semiconductor-based ultrasound probes (MEMS, CMUT) integrated with electronics at the wafer level — replacing classical piezoelectric probes with a single multi-frequency chip.
Subcategory of ultrasound components based on semiconductors: capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUT) or piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUT) fabricated on CMOS chips using standard semiconductor manufacturing processes. Wafer-level integration of thousands of micro transducer elements with control electronics eliminates the hundreds of analog wires required by classical piezoelectric probes, enables operation across a wide frequency range (e.g. 1–12 MHz) from a single device, and reduces unit cost through semiconductor manufacturing scale. Used in handheld POCUS probes, whole-body USCT scanners, industrial probes, and implantable devices.
