Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 51 (2012) 07GB10 BRIEF NOTE

DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.51.07GB10

Acoustic Characteristics of a Tissue Mimicking Phantom

for Visualization of Thermal Distribution
Jungsoon Kim, Moojoon Kim1
, Yejoon Park1 , and Kanglyel Ha1
Media Engineering, Tongmyong University, Busan 608-711, Korea
1
Department of Physics, Pukyong National University, Busan 608-737, Korea
Received November 17, 2011; accepted March 8, 2012; published online July 20, 2012

An ultrasonic tissue mimicking phantom is a useful tool for the performance testing and calibration of ultrasonic medical devices. However, it is
hard to estimate the thermal distribution caused by the ultrasound in the human body using a conventional phantom. In this study, a tissue
mimicking phantom to visualize the thermal distribution was developed by using thermochromic particles. The acoustic characteristics of the
phantom were investigated according to the ingredient ratio of the phantom. Changing the ingredient ratio, the acoustic characteristics of the
phantom can be adjusted to those of human tissue. # 2012 The Japan Society of Applied Physics

For high-power ultrasound treatment such as high intensity Air

focused ultrasound (HIFU) knife, the thermal distribution
caused by the ultrasound should be estimated for patient
safety. Recently, a tissue mimicking phantom for HIFU
has been reported.1–4) As one of the phantoms to visualize
the thermal distribution, the agar gel layer molded with
thermochromic particles was suggested.5) The phantom
should present the basic acoustic properties of human tissue
such as sound speed, density, and attenuation coefficient. In
particular, the thermal distribution depends on an attenuation
coefficient, which is a significant factor in developing
medical ultrasonic systems. However, investigation of the
acoustic characteristics of the phantom is insufficient for
practical use. In this study, to adjust the acoustic char-
acteristics of the phantom to those of human tissues, the
attenuation coefficient and the acoustic impedance of the
phantom material were investigated according to the
ingredient ratio.
To adjust the acoustic properties in a tissue mimicking
phantom, the attenuation coefficient and the acoustic
impedance were measured when the concentrations of
thermochromic particles, sucrose, and agar (SeaMatrix
21100) were changed. As the basic solvent, pure water
(Burdick & Jackson) was filled in a container of 110 
68  53 mm3 . The phantom was fabricated by molding with
agar, sucrose, and thermochromic particles. The experi-
mental setup for the sound speed and the attenuation
coefficient is shown in Fig. 1. In this figure, an ultrasonic
transducer with a diameter of 24 mm was fabricated from
PZT ceramic, and the resonant frequency of the transducer
was 1.0 MHz. An aluminum block of 153:5  106  62 mm3
with a cylindrical hole was used as a support for the
phantom. The experimental system was set up in air of
constant temperature, 22  C. A burst pulse with 10 V pp of
electric signal was applied to the transducer for the sound
speed measurement. The sound speed was measured by the
pulse–echo method. Meanwhile, for the attenuation coeffi-
cient, the input signal used was a burst pulse with 30 V pp .
The data were obtained as an average of three measure-
ments. The attenuation coefficient,  (dB/cm), was obtained
using
logðA=A0 Þ
 ¼ 20 : ð1Þ
2x


E-mail address: kimmj@pknu.ac.kr
07GB10-1
Unit: mm
Phantom
Ultrasonic Aluminum
transducer block
φ24
62
φ57.3
153.5
Fig. 1. (Color online) Experimental setup for acoustic property
measurement.
Table I. Parameters of the phantom.6,7)
Thermal response ( C/s) 10
Thermal conductivity (W m1 K1 ) 0.55
In the equation, the amplitudes A and A0 were measured by
the pulse–echo method. x is the thickness of a phantom,
and A and A0 are the amplitudes of the first and second
reflection waves from the surface of the phantom, respec-
tively.
The parameters of the phantom could be estimated from
the literature, as shown in Table I. The attenuation co-
efficient and the acoustic impedance were measured as
shown in Fig. 2 when the concentration of agar was
changed. In this result, the attenuation coefficient is
increased rapidly from 0.32 to 1.38 dB/cm with the
percentage of the agar, whereas the acoustic impedance
shows an insignificant increment of about 6% in the given
range. In this case, the concentration of the sucrose was
23%. In the case of sucrose, both the attenuation coefficient
and the acoustic impedance are proportional to the
concentration of sucrose as shown in Fig. 3. From these
results, we confirmed that the attenuation coefficient and
acoustic impedance could be controlled between 0.5 and
1.5 dB/cm by the percentage of sucrose with 0.5% agar. The
acoustic characteristics of the phantom can change with
the concentration of thermochromic particles, as shown in
Fig. 4. Both of the results show a linearly increasing
tendency according to the concentration of thermochromic
# 2012 The Japan Society of Applied Physics
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 51 (2012) 07GB10 J. Kim et al.

2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0

Sugar: 23[%] Sugar: 23[%], Agar: 0.5[%]
attenuation coefficient

Attenuation Coefficient [dB/cm]

attenuation coefficient

Acoustic Impedance [Mrayls]

Attenuation Coefficient [dB/cm]

Acoustic Impedance [Mrayls]

acoustic impedance acoustic impedance
1.8 1.8
1.5 1.5

1.6 1.6
Muscle
1.0 1.0 Kidney
1.4 1.4
Breast
Brain
0.5 0.5 Liver
1.2 Fat 1.2

0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0

0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0
Concentration of agar [%] Concentration of thermocromic particles [%]

Fig. 2. (Color online) Acoustic characteristics of the phantom according Fig. 4. (Color online) Acoustic characteristics of the phantom according
to the concentration of agar. to the concentration of thermochromic particles.

2.0 2.0
Agar: 0.5[%]
Attenuation coefficient [dB/cm]

Acoustic Impedance [MRayls]

1.8
1.5

1.6
1.0
1.4
attenuation coefficient
0.5 acoustic impedance
1.2

0.0 1.0
30 35 40 45 50
Concentration of sugar [%]

Fig. 3. (Color online) Acoustic characteristics of the phantom according Fig. 5. (Color online) Visualization example of thermal distribution of
to the concentration of sucrose. the phantom with 2.8% thermochromic particles, 23% sucrose, and 0.5%
agar.

particles in the phantom with 23% sucrose and 0.5% agar. when the concentrations of the agar, the sucrose, and the
From this result, we compared the attenuation coefficients thermochromic particles were changed. The attenuation
with those of soft tissues in the human body, as shown in this coefficient were changed from 0.3 to 1.2 dB/cm with the
figure, because the attenuation coefficient is deeply related to concentration of thermochromic particles of 0–2.8%. The
the thermal distribution caused by ultrasound. Comparing to proposed phantom could be used not only in the design of
the attenuation coefficients of soft tissues in human body, ultrasonic transducers but also in the inspection of the safety
this result was sufficient to cover the variation range.8,9) The of ultrasonic devices in the medical field.
acoustic characteristics of the phantom, suggested in this Acknowledgment This research was supported by Basic Science Research
study, could be controlled by adjusting the ingredient ratio. Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by
the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010-0002307).
As an example, Fig. 5 shows the visualization of the thermal
distribution in the phantom. It can be confirmed that the
high-temperature region around the focal point of the
transducer appeared as a bright color in the phantom. The
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07GB10-2 # 2012 The Japan Society of Applied Physics