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Ultrasound Sensors and MEMS Devices for Biomedical Applications
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Ultrasound Sensors and MEMS Devices for Biomedical Applications

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 4576

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Andrea Scorza

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, University of Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 79, 00146 Rome, Italy
Interests: mechanical and thermal measurement systems and instrumentation; design and testing of biomedical instrumentation; experimental mechanics applied in biomedical fields
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Giorgia Fiori

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, University of Roma Tre, Via della Vasca Navale 79, 00146 Rome, Italy
Interests: clinical engineering; mechanical and thermal measurement systems and instrumentation; methods and systems for quality assessment of Doppler ultrasound equipment for clinical use
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ultrasound (US) sensors and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have gained increasing interest in the scientific community, and their appications have grown in industry and healthcare. In the biomedical field, US sensors are traditionally used for medical imaging, and although almost a century has passed since the first application of ultrasound in diagnostics, this technology is constantly evolving. Their appeal in science and research has led to advancements in transducer technology and digital electronics, resulting in improved diagnostic information. On the other hand, biomedical MEMS devices have been promoted over the past 20 years as the latest generation of miniaturized instruments, and are mainly used for cell characterization and manipulation, drug delivery, microsurgery, microtherapy, diagnostics and prevention. Based on the many advantages of these devices, their potential applications are constantly being investigated. Given this panorama, the synergy between MEMS and ultrasound technology is of great interest to the scientific community.

This Special Issue aims to gather papers demonstrating the latest developments and advancements in ultrasound sensors and MEMS devices in the biomedical field.

Both original research articles and methodological reviews are welcome. Research areas may inlcude (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Healthcare;
  • Rehabilitation;
  • Sport engineering;
  • Food science and technology;
  • Environmental medicine;
  • Living environments for patient safety.

Dr. Andrea Scorza
Dr. Giorgia Fiori
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ultrasound sensors
  • MEMS devices
  • sensing technology
  • instrumentation
  • measurement
  • biomedical applications

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 15797 KB  
Article
A Novel Nickel-Foam/Tungsten-Powder/Epoxy-Resin Backing Material for Medical Ultrasound Transducers
by Hao Wang, Yilei Li, Ke Zhu, Chenyang Zheng, Jinpeng Ma, Enwei Sun, Xudong Qi and Rui Zhang
Sensors 2026, 26(9), 2630; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26092630 - 24 Apr 2026
Viewed by 353
Abstract
The miniaturization of medical ultrasound imaging transducers is currently limited by the thick backing layers required to dissipate backward acoustic energy. To address this, a novel hybrid composite backing material was developed by interpenetrating a three-dimensional open-cell nickel foam skeleton with a traditional [...] Read more.
The miniaturization of medical ultrasound imaging transducers is currently limited by the thick backing layers required to dissipate backward acoustic energy. To address this, a novel hybrid composite backing material was developed by interpenetrating a three-dimensional open-cell nickel foam skeleton with a traditional tungsten-powder/epoxy-resin matrix. Two groups of composite samples with varying pores per inch (PPI) were fabricated, and their acoustic properties were systematically characterized. Experimental results indicated that the 100 PPI composite achieved macroscopic acoustic attenuation coefficients of 62.6 dB/cm at 5 MHz and 84.2 dB/cm at 7.5 MHz. These values are roughly three times higher than conventional backing materials, while maintaining a suitable acoustic impedance of 10.81 MRayl. A 5 MHz transducer utilizing a 5.0 mm layer of this proposed backing achieved a −60 dB two-way pulse-echo insertion loss, effectively eliminating backside interference with performance comparable to a 16.5 mm conventional backing. This structural strategy successfully reduces the required backing axial dimension by over 60% without compromising transducer bandwidth, offering a viable material solution for miniaturized ultrasonic transducers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrasound Sensors and MEMS Devices for Biomedical Applications)
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16 pages, 6212 KB  
Article
Detection of Irregular Loads Using SAW Delay-Line Devices
by Yining Yin, Zheng Zhao, Ran You, Yong Liang and Wen Wang
Sensors 2026, 26(7), 2237; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26072237 - 4 Apr 2026
Viewed by 575
Abstract
A two-dimensional segmentation model based on the P-matrix array was developed to simulate surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay-line devices under irregular loading. Building on coupling-of-modes (COM) theory and P-matrix model, a channelization approach was introduced to enhance conventional response simulation, enabling the systematic [...] Read more.
A two-dimensional segmentation model based on the P-matrix array was developed to simulate surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay-line devices under irregular loading. Building on coupling-of-modes (COM) theory and P-matrix model, a channelization approach was introduced to enhance conventional response simulation, enabling the systematic extraction of frequency and phase characteristics under varying spatial load distributions. Experimental verification was conducted using SAW devices fabricated by depositing aluminum interdigital transducers (IDTs) on Y-cut 35° quartz crystals through semiconductor lithography. The results demonstrate that the two-dimensional segmentation method effectively and accurately simulates the response of SAW delay line devices under various non-uniform and irregular mass loading distributions, both the phase shift and frequency shift exhibit linear proportionality to the loaded area (R2 > 0.99), while the amplitude-frequency characteristics remain stable with increasing load coverage, showing no observable distortion or aberration. Quantitative mass detection experiments employing polystyrene microspheres further demonstrate that the device response increases linearly with the number of sample injections, and the shift magnitude is directly proportional to the amount injected per loading event. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrasound Sensors and MEMS Devices for Biomedical Applications)
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24 pages, 17497 KB  
Article
Vertebra-Level Completeness Analysis in Thoracolumbar Ultrasound Using a YOLO-Based Detection Framework
by Sumartini Dana, Chen Zhang, Yongping Zheng and Sai Ho Ling
Sensors 2026, 26(7), 2101; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26072101 - 27 Mar 2026
Viewed by 720
Abstract
Ultrasound enables radiation-free longitudinal monitoring of scoliosis, but rib shadowing and speckle noise often obscure vertebral structures. Current deep-learning methods present results in terms of localisation accuracy, without directly measuring anatomical completeness. We introduce a vertebra-level completeness model that includes a YOLO-based detection [...] Read more.
Ultrasound enables radiation-free longitudinal monitoring of scoliosis, but rib shadowing and speckle noise often obscure vertebral structures. Current deep-learning methods present results in terms of localisation accuracy, without directly measuring anatomical completeness. We introduce a vertebra-level completeness model that includes a YOLO-based detection framework and an explicit representation of completeness, the Vertebra Presence Matrix (VPM). The VPM provides visibility into detections across 17 ordinal vertebral levels (T1–T12, L1–L5), allowing us to measure completeness across anatomy rather than just detections. Thoracolumbar ultrasound scans were annotated and divided into train/test sets using a patient-wise split to avoid data leakage. Four model variants were evaluated, including full-spine and vertebra-centric crop representations with single-class and 17-class detection heads. The full-spine detector was less stable in regions of high anatomical variability, such as the upper thoracic and lower lumbar spine. Crops of individual vertebrae were more stable under partial fields of view. The 17-class crop model achieved an mAP50 of 0.929 and a scan-level completeness score of 0.74 using the VPM. These results demonstrate that vertebral completeness can be explicitly quantified and integrated with localisation-based metrics for completeness-aware automated scoliosis evaluation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrasound Sensors and MEMS Devices for Biomedical Applications)
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Review

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36 pages, 3335 KB  
Review
Air-Coupled Ultrasound Systems for Biomedical Applications: Advances in Sensors, Electronic Interfaces and Signal Processing Strategies
by Filippo Laganà, Riccardo Olivieri, Elena Stuppia, Gianluca Barile, Giuseppe Ferri and Salvatore A. Pullano
Sensors 2026, 26(5), 1692; https://doi.org/10.3390/s26051692 - 7 Mar 2026
Viewed by 2068
Abstract
Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) is emerging as a fully non-contact sensing modality in biomedical applications. ACU applications can be broadly classified into two main domains: (i) contactless monitoring of physiological parameters and (ii) assistive aids, robotic perception in unstructured real-world environments, enabling tracking and [...] Read more.
Air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) is emerging as a fully non-contact sensing modality in biomedical applications. ACU applications can be broadly classified into two main domains: (i) contactless monitoring of physiological parameters and (ii) assistive aids, robotic perception in unstructured real-world environments, enabling tracking and geometric reconstruction. Advances in electronic materials and sensor design have enhanced ultrasonic sensor characteristics (e.g., bandwidth, directivity, and intensity). In parallel, progress in front-end electronics and signal processing, including artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted analysis, has enhanced ACU performance under low signal-to-noise (SNR) conditions. This review focuses on low-frequency ACU systems, with emphasis on sensor technologies, electronic interfaces, and system architectures that enable non-contact biomedical and robotic applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ultrasound Sensors and MEMS Devices for Biomedical Applications)
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