Butterfly Network

Butterfly Network is a firm based in Guilford, Connecticut, that has introduced Butterfly iQ portable ultrasound system. Butterfly Network, Inc. develops a medical imaging device, designed to reduce the cost of real-time, three-dimensional imaging, and treatment. It consists of a portable transducer that connects directly to an iPhone, and an iOS app to display the images and to control settings.

The device actually works as three different transducers thanks to an ultra wideband matrix array. This allows a clinician to perform a bunch of different scans and for the Butterfly iQ to be applicable in different clinical settings. The firm compares its technology to how photo camera sensors have been integrated within smartphones, enabling anyone to have high-quality photo imaging in their pocket. Butterfly Network Inc. received FDA 510(k) clearance for the world's first Ultrasound-on-a-Chip based imaging system, the Butterfly iQ for iPhone.

The clearance covers 13 clinical applications, the broadest ever for a single ultrasound transducer. By combining almost 10 thousand sensors, 40 times more than systems costing 100 times as much, Butterfly ushers in a new era of accessible, high-performance medical imaging.

First of its kind 3-in-1 transducer provides maximum versatility and convenience. Butterfly's Ultrasound-on-a-Chip technology combines the capabilities of the typical three probes into a single ultra wide-band, 2D matrix array comprised of thousands of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). These sensors are directly overlaid on an integrated circuit encompassing the electronics of a high-performance ultrasound system.

The acoustic bandwidth and processing power available from the MEMS and electronics fusion creates unprecedented diagnostic versatility, speeds, modes, and resolutions. Moving the ultrasound machine to a chip allows it to be produced at unprecedented scales, at prices and rates of improvements that obey Moore's law and will enable a series of future form factors.