Design and realization of ultrasonic sensor readout for evaluating the injury induced by radiotherapy

GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING Institute of Electrical and Control Engineering     2021/08/01
To develop an novel non-invasive ultrasonic sensor patch and its readout integrated circuit to instantly and accurately monitor neck artery wound caused by radiation therapy. According to the MOHW of Taiwan, cancers account for about 28.6% of the total deaths in the nation and the number is increasing every year, which makes cancers the no. 1 cause of death for consecutive 38 years. One of the most accepted cancer treatments in recent years is radiotherapy, which is validated by evidence-based medicine and commonly adopted. However, undergoing radiotherapy may affect the patients, over 50 % of the patients show the symptoms of carotid stenosis, and 20% is under the risks of cerebral ischemia and/or stroke. Therefore, there is an essential medical need to prevent and/or contain carotid stenosis. Regarding this need, this study will develop a readout circuit which is capable to detect and analyze the change in blood flow and possible turbulence due to thickening and hardening of blood vessel walls in order to prevent carotid blowout, pseudoaneurysm or other problems beforehand. Different from other similar systems, the readout circuit developed in this study can monitor the change in underlying vessels without causing any pressure or damage. The study begins with the design of a single-channel ultrasonic sensor patch consisting of piezoelectric ceramic materials consisting of lead zirconate (Pb(ZrTi) O3, PZT), a front-end analog readout circuit which consists of non-inductive CS-CG low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), doppler demodulation circuits, and high-voltage (HV) pulse generator. The analog readout circuit will eventually be integrated with the digital signal processing circuit into a mixed signal SoC. At the time, this study will also develop an AI algorithms for calculating the instantaneous diameter change to distill various cervical artery indicators. IRB will be applied to clinically measure the reliability of the readout circuit system. At the end of the project it is expected that the readout circuit could achieve at least 90% accuracy on the major categories including peak systolic velocity, end diastolic velocity, mean velocity and systolic to diastolic ratio.