Scientists make major breakthru in ultrasound capabilities

SYDNEY, Jan 15 (Xinhua): Researchers at Australia's University of Queensland (UQ) have made a major breakthrough in ultrasound technology which they believe could greatly improve technologies, from medical imaging, to unmanned aerial vehicles.

The team described on Monday how they used modern nanofabrication and nanophotonics to make extremely precise ultrasound sensors, small enough to fit on a silicon chip.

"We've developed a near perfect ultrasound detector, hitting the limits of what the technology is capable of achieving," Prof Warwick Bowen, from UQ's Precision Sensing Initiative, said.

"We're now able to measure ultrasound waves that apply tiny forces, comparable to the gravitational force on a virus, and we can do this with sensors smaller than a millimetre across," Bowen said.

With ultrasound being used across a range of technologies, the team believe that the development could lead to any number of exciting breakthroughs.