Agenda

Microelectronics colloquium

• Thursday, 23 October 2025
• 16:00-17:00
• EEMCS, lecture hall D@ta

Microengineering Therapeutic Ultrasound

Microengineering Therapeutic Ultrasound

Many neurological, immunological, and oncological diseases remain difficult to treat because they require interventions that can reach specific targets deep within the body without surgery or systemic side effects. Therapeutic ultrasound offers a path to do so: it can focus energy non-invasively, penetrate deep tissue, and safely interact with biological systems with precision and efficacy. Yet most existing systems rely on bulky, power-hungry hardware that lacks precision and adaptability. To make ultrasound a truly programmable and wearable therapeutic technology, we need to rethink how acoustic energy is generated and controlled,  starting from the microsystem level.

In recent years, our group has been working to bring therapeutic ultrasound from benchtop prototypes to fully integrated microsystems. The goal is to engineer devices that can generate and shape acoustic fields with the same precision and efficiency that we now take for granted in integrated electronic systems. This requires electronics and acoustics to be co-designed, from initial modelling to the final fabrication. In this colloquium, I will present our latest work on this front by describing our efforts in: (i) CMOS circuits for ultrasound transmit beamforming, with architectures that maximize ultrasound frequency and power; (ii) Chip and wafer-level integration of bulk piezoelectric materials for implantable and conformable therapeutic devices. (iii) Initial simulations and designs towards 4D acoustic holography, an approach that allows the projection of complex, programmable acoustic fields and represents a step toward personalized, adaptive therapeutic ultrasound; (iv) Application of our devices in optimizing ultrasound-triggered drug release from liposomes for targeted delivery of chemotherapeutic agents, and the first results of chronic implantation in rodents towards high-precision brain stimulation.

Overview of Microelectronics Colloquium