Butterfly Ultrasound-on-Chip
Butterfly Ultrasound-on-Chip™ is Butterfly Network's proprietary semiconductor technology that replaced classical piezoelectric crystals with a single CMOS die containing thousands of CMUT (Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer) elements. Butterfly was the first company to create a commercially available, FDA-cleared ultrasound device using semiconductor MEMS and a single handheld probe covering the entire 1–12 MHz range.
Chip architecture
The chip integrates a 2D matrix of more than 9,000 silicon CMUT elements directly with control electronics at the wafer level (wafer-level integration). Each element is a microscopic membrane capable of both emitting and receiving sound waves over a wide, programmable frequency band. By integrating sensors and electronics on a single postage-stamp-sized chip, Butterfly eliminates the hundreds of analog wires required by classical 3D probes and supports advanced imaging modes (B-mode, M-mode, Coherence, Color/Power/Pulsed Doppler, 3D imaging, beam steering) from a single multi-purpose probe.
Compute and operating modes
The chip itself delivers approximately 1 trillion operations per second, enabling one probe to support linear, phased, and curved arrays with no image-quality compromise. This packs the compute of a hospital-class cart-based ultrasound system into a pocket device while enabling software-only feature upgrades (software-defined ultrasound).
Manufacturing scale and intellectual property
Butterfly Network has documented the technology with more than 600 patents (per the official site). Manufacturing leverages the same infrastructure that produces computer processors — bringing semiconductor-scale economics to an industry traditionally dominated by hand-soldering thousands of wires to piezoelectric crystals.
Commercial and licensed deployments
The chip is at the heart of Butterfly's own products: the second-generation iQ+ probe and the third-generation iQ3 (powered by the P4.3 chip with double the processing power of P4). Through the Butterfly Embedded™ licensing program (formerly Octiv), the technology is made available to partners for co-development of new devices. Most visible partner deployments: the Midjourney Scanner (40 chips per system, full-body USCT), Mendaera, and Forest Neurotech.
Environmental aspect
Butterfly positions the CMUT technology as an environmentally safer alternative to PZT (lead-containing piezoelectric) transducers, which are subject to RoHS/COCIR exemptions. Eliminating PZT while keeping image quality comparable to cart-based devices is one of the manufacturer's arguments for sustainable manufacturing.
Classification
CMUT ultrasound chip (on CMOS) · serves as: Medical imaging, Sensing, Compute.
Which group Butterfly Ultrasound-on-Chip belongs to and how it is built
Subcategory of ultrasound components based on semiconductors: capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUT) or piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUT) fabricated on CMOS chips using standard semiconductor manufacturing processes. Wafer-level integration of thousands of micro transducer elements with control electronics eliminates the hundreds of analog wires required by classical piezoelectric probes, enables operation across a wide frequency range (e.g. 1–12 MHz) from a single device, and reduces unit cost through semiconductor manufacturing scale. Used in handheld POCUS probes, whole-body USCT scanners, industrial probes, and implantable devices.
Component type denoting a single integrated circuit that combines a CMUT transducer matrix (typically 2D) with analog and digital electronics, manufactured in a single semiconductor process on a CMOS substrate. Each CMUT element is a microscopic electrostatic-field membrane capable of both emitting and receiving ultrasound waves across a wide, programmable frequency range. Wafer-level integration with control electronics delivers compute on the order of trillions of operations per second and supports imaging modes (B-mode, M-mode, Doppler, Coherence, 3D, beam steering) that classically require multiple separate piezoelectric probes.
Technical specification
Basic physical properties of Butterfly Ultrasound-on-Chip — dimensions, weight and materials
Relations
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