Micromachined silicon acoustic delay lines for ultrasound applications

In this paper, we present the design, fabrication and testing of novel micromachined silicon-based acoustic delay lines. The acoustic properties of different silicon delay-line structures have been characterized. Based on the experiment results, two different acoustic delay line systems (parallel and serial) have been successfully demonstrated to create controlled time delays in multiple channels of ultrasound signals. The time-delayed ultrasound signals are received with a single-element ultrasound transducer in a time-serial manner. This unique capability could be used to merge multiple signal channels, thereby enabling new ultrasound receiver designs with potentially less complexity and lower cost.