Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Medical Corporation

Fujifilm Healthcare Corporation

Other

Renesas Technology Corp.

Hitachi Metals, Ltd.

Hitachi Ulsi Systems Co., Ltd.

Shuntaro Machida

Hiroyuki Enomoto

Daisuke Ryuzaki

Taiichi Takezaki

Tatsuya Nagata

Takashi Kobayashi

Yoshitaka Tadaki

Nobuyuki Sugii

Yasuhiro Yoshimura

Tetsufumi Kawamura

Takeshi Furusawa

Hiroshi Fukuda

Keiji Watanabe

Toshiyuki Mine

Hiroki Tanaka

Natsuki Yokoyama

Yasushi Goto

Hiroaki Hasegawa

Naoaki Yamashita

Takashi Azuma

Kazuki Watanabe

Noriyuki Sakuma

Kazuo Nojiri

Takashi Yunogami

Takafumi Tokunaga

Kenji Hinode

Akifumi Sako

Takao Kumihashi

Kazutami Tago

Atsushi Maekawa

Shouochi Uno

Taro Asai

Ryou Yoneyama

Tomonori Sekiguchi

Shinichiro Umemura

Yoshitaka Sasago

Shin-ichiro Umemura

Hitoshi Nakamura

Katsuya Hayano

Ryo Imai

Masaharu Kinoshita

Katsuya Miura

Takanori Aono

Kunio Hashiba

Kengo Imagawa

Misuzu Sagawa

Tomohiko Tanaka

Yuko Hanaoka

Masakazu Kawano

Teiichiro Ikeda

Takahiro Odaka

Aki Takei

A highly-sensitive ultrasonic transducer with good yield is provided. The ultrasonic transducer includes a cavity layer, a pair of electrodes positioned above and below the cavity layer, insulating layers disposed above and below each of the pair of electrodes, and a filled hole that penetrates, in a vertical direction, at least a portion of the insulating layers positioned above the cavity layer. When the ultrasonic transducer is viewed from above, each electrode of the pair of electrodes includes, at a position that overlaps the embedded hole, a non-electrode region where the electrodes are not formed.

Ultrasonic transducer, manufacturing method thereof, and ultrasonic imaging device

An ultrasonic probe includes a semiconductor chip in which an ultrasonic transducer is formed and an electrode pad electrically connected to an upper electrode or a lower electrode of the ultrasonic transducer is provided and a flexible substrate in which a bump electrically connected to the electrode pad is provided and the bump is disposed in a portion overlapping with a stepped portion of the semiconductor chip. Further, a height of a connection surface of the electrode pad of the semiconductor chip connected to the bump is lower than a height of a lower surface of the lower electrode.

Ultrasonic probe and ultrasonic measurement apparatus using the same

Provided is a semiconductor chip, including: a semiconductor substrate; a thin film formed on the semiconductor substrate, the thin film having internal stress; and a semiconductor device formed on the semiconductor substrate that has the thin film formed thereon, wherein the semiconductor chip warps due to the internal stress of the thin film.

Semiconductor chip

A capacitive device includes a unit cell including a CMUT, and a transmission/reception plate for impedance matching which is provided above the unit cell via a connection portion, in which a membrane of the CMUT constituting the unit cell is connected to the transmission/reception plate via the connection portion having an area smaller than that of the transmission/reception plate. The area of the transmission/reception plate is desirably larger than the area of a hollow portion of the CMUT.

Capacitive device and piezoelectric device

Capacitors, each of which is electrically connected to a capacitor which is the cell of the CMUT mounted in a chip and is used as a DC block capacitor for protecting an amplifying circuit, are formed as many as plural aligned channels in the chip. The capacitor is an electrostatic capacitance element which is not vibrated acoustically.

Ultrasonic transducer array and ultrasonic probe

A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducerA includes: a silicon substratean insulating filmformed over the silicon substratea lower electrode; insulating filmsanda cavityconstituted by a void formed in a portion of the insulating filman upper electrodeinsulating filmsandand a protective filmIn addition, the insulating filmupper electrodeinsulating filmand insulating filmabove the cavityconfigure a vibration filmand the protective filmabove the vibration filmis divided into a plurality of isolated patterns regularly arranged with a gaphaving a constant spacing formed therebetween.

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer and ultrasonic imaging apparatus using the same

Technique that enables precisely measuring cavity height and precisely grasping maximum transmission sound pressure in an ultrasonic probe is provided to the ultrasonic probe using CMUT. The ultrasonic probe according to the present invention includes plural cells each of which includes a lower electrode and an upper electrode arranged via a gap with respect to the lower electrode, and the plural cells include an ultrasonic cell the gap of which is void and which transmits/receives an ultrasonic wave and a reference cell the gap of which is filled with a conductive material. Electrostatic capacity of the ultrasonic cell and the reference cell is measured, parasitic capacity included in the measured electrostatic capacity as to the ultrasonic cell is corrected using parasitic capacity included in the measured electrostatic capacity as to the reference cell, and cavity height is calculated on the basis of the corrected electrostatic capacity of the ultrasonic cell.

Ultrasound probe, performance evaluation method therefor, and ultrasound diagnostic equipment

An ultrasonic transducer element includes a substrate, a lower electrode on a first surface of the substrate, a first insulating film on the lower electrode, a first cavity layer on the first insulating film, a second insulating film on the first cavity layer, an upper electrode on the second insulating film that overlaps the first cavity layer, a third insulating film on the upper electrode, a second cavity layer on the third insulating film, a fourth insulating film on the second cavity layer, a fixing portion formed by the second to fourth insulating films, a movable portion in a membrane insides the second cavity layer, a first connection portion and a second connection portion that are stacked with a gap and the connection portions are configured by the second to fourth insulating films connecting the movable portion and the fixing portion.

Ultrasonic transducer element, method of manufacturing the same, and ultrasonic image pickup device

For the purpose of shortening the MEMS manufacturing TAT, the MEMS manufacturing method according to the present invention includes a step of extracting the first MEMS with first characteristic in a range approximate to the required characteristic from the plurality of MEMS preliminarily prepared on the main surface of the substrate, and a step of forming a second MEMS having the required characteristic by directly processing the first MEMS.

MEMS manufacturing method and MEMS manufacturing apparatus

A structure that prevents a substrate from being warped is provided on a region or a location other than a membrane that determines the characteristics of a CMUT. In a CMUT in a structure in which a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer are provided sandwiching a cavity on a substrate, for example, as a warpage prevention structure, a warpage prevention layer that prevents the substrate from being warped is provided between the substrate and the first conductive film. When the insulating film disposed between the cavity and the first conductive film and the insulating film disposed between the cavity and the second conductive film are silicon oxide films, the warpage prevention layer includes a silicon nitride film.

Ultrasonic transducer, method for making same, ultrasonic transducer array, and ultrasonic test apparatus

A sensor element includes a sensor FET provided in a main surface of a semiconductor substrate, a cavity provided in the sensor FET and into which a detection target gas is introduced, and an ion pump provided over the cavity. By laminating the ion pump over the sensor FET via the cavity, a part of a front surface of a gate layer is exposed to the cavity, and a part of a lower surface of an ion pump electrode is exposed to the cavity. When the gate layer comes into contact with the detection target gas, a work function changes, so that gas concentration can be detected.

Gas sensor

The invention is directed to a technique for reducing the time from the start of fabrication of a prototype structure to the completion of fabrication of a real structure. A device processing method includes steps of: fabricating a first structure using an ion beam under a first condition in a first region on a substrate; measuring a size of the first structure which is fabricated; comparing the measurement result with design data; determining a second condition from the comparison result; and fabricating a second structure using the ion beam under the second condition in a second region on the substrate.

Device processing method and device processing apparatus

First, an ion beam is applied to a workpiece to form a tapered hole the side wall of which is inclined. Next, the application of the ion beam is stopped, and then a material gas is introduced from the gas source to the upper surface of the workpiece from an oblique direction to cause gas molecules to be adsorbed to the upper surface of the workpiece and to the upper portion of the side wall of the hole. Next, introduction of the material gas is stopped, and then the ion beam is applied again to the region of the workpiece where the hole is formed. As a result, at the upper portion of the side wall of the hole, film formation occurs using the gas molecules as the material adsorbed to the side wall of the hole, and, at the bottom portion of the hole, etching of the workpiece occurs.

Microstructure processing method and microstructure processing apparatus

A manufacturing device inputs design information including three-dimensional structure data, generates a manufacturing process flow, and displays the manufacturing process flow on a screen for a user to check, modify, and confirm the flow based on design information and setting information. A process method includes a first process method of a direct modeling method having an FIB method and a second process method of a semiconductor manufacturing process method which is a non-FIB method. The manufacturing device generates a plurality of manufacturing process flows by a combination of cases where each of the process methods is applied to each of the regions of the three-dimensional data. The manufacturing process flow includes a process device, the process method, a control parameter value, a process time, and a total process time for each of process steps. An output unit outputs a manufacturing process flow having, for example, the shortest total process time.

Manufacturing device, system and method for outputting a manufacturing process flow having the shortest total process time among a plurality of manufacturing process flows

Both controlling damage when assembling an ultrasonic probe using a chip formed with a capacitive ultrasonic transducer and securing operational reliability are achieved. In a semiconductor substrate on which the capacitive ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) is formed on a first primary surface, a protective film is formed on the surface of the ultrasonic transducer which is formed on the first primary surface of the semiconductor substrate which is then thinned by polishing a second primary surface opposite to the first primary surface of the semiconductor substrate, an ultrasonic transducer chip is cutout of the semiconductor substrate, a sound absorbing material is provided on the surface opposite to the surface formed with the ultrasonic transducer, and the protective film formed on the surface of the ultrasonic transducer is removed.

Production method for ultrasonic probe, ultrasonic probe, and ultrasonic diagnosis device

Growing community of inventors

Kokubunji, Japan

Shuntaro Machida