Novel Ultrasound Sensor invented at UCL shortlisted for IET Innovation Award

Whereas most ultrasound sensors incorporate some form of piezoelectric material, Tom’s devices can be made by a one-step etching process and have the potential to drastically reduce the cost of high-speed ultrasound imaging systems. They are built on top of recent advances in high-frequency analogue chips designed to serve the 5G industry.

The technology is being commercialised by Pinfold Technologies, which participated in the second cohort of Conception X, UCL’s deep-tech start-up accelerator for PhD students. Its basic operating principle was presented in a conference paper last year [1] and is the subject of a patent application.

Tom is a member of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Integrated Photonic and Electronic systems (IPES-CDT), a programme run jointly between University College London and Cambridge University. In particular, he is a member of the Photonics Group in UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering under the supervision of Professor Cyril Renaud. His idea stems from his studies of opto-acoustic (the interaction between light and sound) systems and, in particular, their limitations. All of these led him to develop a proof of concept that he is now using to commercialise the technology.

The IET is one of the world’s largest engineering institutions with over 168,000 members in 150 countries. The IET Innovation awards recognise and celebrate the very best new innovations across the breadth of science, engineering and technology.

[1] T. S. Robbins, J. P. Seddon, E. J. Alles, E. Z. Zhang, A. E. Desjardins, and C. C. Renaud, ‘Microwave Oscillator Ultrasound Receivers’, in 2018 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS), 2018, pp. 1–4.