Revitalizing CMUTs

CMUTs (Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers) are causing a technological revolution. Research over the last decade showed that CMUTs can sufficiently replace traditional ultrasound technology based on the bulk PZT, along with other benefits such as lower assembly cost, broader bandwidth and monolithic integration capability with ASICs. Furthermore, devices can be fabricated from with non-toxic materials and eliminate the environmental impact that is associated to PZT. As a result, in recent years we are seeing low-cost consumer level ultrasound imaging technology becoming available for point of care diagnostics devices from startup companies. However, surprisingly, CMUT technology adoption is still lagging behind what we would expect. Thus, in this thesis three novel CMUT applications are investigated to show-case the untapped potentials of CMUTs which should lead to further traction for the CMUT field. By reading this work it is my wish that the reader could understand the hugely prosperous future of CMUTs.