362 results about "Ultrasonic transducer array" patented technology

An ultrasound power transmitter comprising a transmit ultrasonic transducer array has a plurality of transmit ultrasonic transducers. The ultrasound power transmitter activates a set of transmit ultrasonic transducers in close proximity of an electronic device to be arranged to beam ultrasound energy to the electronic device. Alignment magnets of the ultrasound power transmitter are aligned with corresponding alignment magnets of the electronic device to manage the ultrasound beaming. The ultrasound energy may be converted into electric power to charge the battery of the electronic device. Feedbacks may be provided by the electronic device to the ultrasound power transmitter to increase power transmission efficiency. The ultrasound power transmitter may pair the electronic device with other different electronic devices utilizing ultrasonic signals. A spacer with good ultrasound power transmission properties may be located between the ultrasound power transmitter and an ultrasound power receiver of an intended electronic device to enhance power transmission.

This invention relates to an ultrasonic transducer array for non-destructive imaging and inspection of materials, suitable for applications such as bio-medical imaging. According to the invention, the transducer has at least one electrode comprising an array of electrode elements, wherein the elements are not separated by a grooves or kerfs. The grooveless transducer design simplifies transducer construction and permits very high operating frequencies, and hence very high resolution. In one embodiment suitable for producing real-time high resolution 3-dimension images, the invention provides a hybrid transducer comprising two opposed electrodes, one electrode being a grooveless linear array and the second electrode being a grooved linear phased array.

An ultrasound oral hygiene and therapeutic device comprises an array of ultrasonic transducers, a power generator, and a filling element. The ultrasonic transducer array, with optional radiation plates and reflection plates, produce uniform ultrasound radiation on each surface desirable to be treated by ultrasound radiation. The soft and resilient filling element snugly fits into a user's oral cavity, confines cleaning solution and the ultrasound action within a limited ultrasound action zone surrounding the surfaces desirable to be treated, and protects all other parts of the oral cavity from ultrasound radiation. The device provides superior, uniform, and consistent cleaning results in a short time. In particular, it cleans the entire dental surface, including the inter-dental and gingival areas. It is extremely easy to use, quiet, durable, energy efficient, and inexpensive in long run.

A micromachined ultrasonic transducer array that focuses in the elevation direction. A curved lens is used to narrow the beam width in the elevation direction so that contrast resolution is improved and clinically relevant. Alternatively, a curved probe is formed by bending a micromachined substrate to have a predetermined curvature. The invention is further directed to methods of manufacturing such transducers.

A curved sensor device, such as an ultrasonic transducer array, is fabricated from a flat micromachined sensor (such as cMUT or pMUT) array constructed using micromachined electromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques. The device comprises: a support structure comprising a spine having a profile that is generally curved and a multiplicity of teeth extending from one side of the curved spine; and a multiplicity of sensors built on the support structure. The spine can be bent forward or backward and attached to a curved front face of a support member, thereby causing the sensors to adopt a curved array.

A micromachined ultrasonic transducer array comprising a multiplicity of cMUT cells built on a substrate. Each cMUT cell comprises a compliant support structure built on the substrate, a membrane supported over a cavity by the compliant support structure, a first electrode supported by the membrane, and a second electrode that forms a capacitor with the first electrode, the cavity being disposed between the first and second electrodes. The compliant support structure uncouples the non-membrane outer surface of each cMUT cell from the supporting substrate.

The embodiments of the present invention provide a CMUT array and method of fabricating the same. The CMUT array has CMUT elements individually or respectively addressable from a backside of a substrate on which the CMUT array is fabricated. In one embodiment, a CMUT array is formed on a front side of a very high conductivity silicon substrate. Through wafer trenches are etched into the substrate from the backside of the substrate to electrically isolate individual CMUT elements formed on the front side of the substrate. Electrodes are formed on the backside of the substrate to individually address the CMUT elements through the substrate.

An integrated circuit is fabricated by micromachining a hexagonal array of cMUT elements on top of a substrate comprising a hexagonal array of CMOS cells. Each cMUT element overlies a respective CMOS cell in one-to-one correspondence. During layout of the mask for micromachining the cMUT layer, either the hexagonal pattern or the alignment key is rotated until an axis of symmetry of the hexagonal pattern is aligned with an axis of the alignment key. Later, when the mask is superimposed on the CMOS substrate, the alignment key on the mask is aligned with an alignment key on the substrate. This ensures that the cMUT elements formed by optical lithography will be matched to the CMOS cells.

The invention relates to an ultrasonic imaging system for elasticity measurement. The ultrasonic imaging system comprises a probe, an ultrasonic imaging device, a controlling and processing device and a display device, wherein the probe comprises a low-frequency oscillation driving device for generating oscillation and forming a shearing wave propagating from human body surface to tissues, and an ultrasonic transducer array for sending an ultrasonic signal to the tissues and receiving an ultrasonic echo signal; the ultrasonic imaging device is used for driving the ultrasonic transducer array to send the ultrasonic signal and receive and process the ultrasonic echo signal according to loaded imaging parameters; the controlling and processing device is used for controlling the low-frequency oscillation driving device and the ultrasonic imaging device to process the ultrasonic echo signal so as to obtain a two-dimensional ultrasonic image and elasticity information of the tissues; and the display device is used for displaying the two-dimensional ultrasonic image and the elasticity information. The system and elasticity measuring method can simultaneously obtain the two-dimensional ultrasonic image and the elasticity information of the tissues, thereby improving clinical diagnosis accuracy; and the probe can realize precise positioning under the guiding of the two-dimensional ultrasonic image without considering displacement compensation, thereby improving convenience and accuracy of tissue elasticity measurement.

A simple, low cost ultrasound beamforming system uses an analog random access memory (RAM) element for each beamforming channel. The system includes a processor and an ultrasonic transducer array. The ultrasonic transducer array includes a plurality of transducer elements, each transducer element associated with one of a plurality of channels. The system also includes a beamformer adapted to receive an output signal from each of the plurality of transducer elements, and a delay element located in the beamformer and associated with each of the channels, where the delay element comprises an analog random access memory element.

An ultrasound oral hygiene and therapeutic device comprises an array of ultrasonic transducers, a power generator, and a filling element. The ultrasonic transducer array, with optional radiation plates and reflection plates, produce uniform ultrasound radiation on each surface desirable to be treated by ultrasound radiation. The soft and resilient filling element snugly fits into a user's oral cavity, confines cleaning solution and the ultrasound action within a limited ultrasound action zone surrounding the surfaces desirable to be treated, and protects all other parts of the oral cavity from ultrasound radiation. The device provides superior, uniform, and consistent cleaning results in a short time. In particular, it cleans the entire dental surface, including the inter-dental and gingival areas. It is extremely easy to use, quiet, durable, energy efficient, and inexpensive in long run.

Medical imaging devices may comprise an array of ultrasonic transducer elements. Each transducer element may comprise a substrate having a doped surface creating a highly conducting surface layer, a layer of thermal oxide on the substrate, a layer of silicon nitride on the layer of thermal oxide, a layer of silicon dioxide on the layer of silicon nitride, and a layer of conducting thin film on the layer of silicon dioxide. The layers of silicon dioxide and thermal oxide may sandwich the layer of silicon nitride, and the layer of conducting thin film may be separated from the layer of silicon nitride by the layer of silicon dioxide.

Apparatus and methods to form high efficiency and uniform Fresnel lens arrays for ultrasonic liquid manipulation are provided. An ultrasonic transducer array may be fabricated by forming top and bottom electrodes on top and bottom surfaces of a sensor plate. The ultrasonic transducer array may generate ultrasonic energy to manipulate one or more samples. Each of the top and bottom electrodes may be coupled to a radio frequency source and arranged to form one of a solid shape or a pattern. Additional apparatus and methods are disclosed.

A continuous, non-invasive fetal heart rate measurement is produced using one or more ultrasonic transducer array patches that are adhered or attached to the mother. Each ultrasound transducer array is operated in an autonomous mode by a digital signal processor to obtain data from which fetal heart rate information can be derived. Each ultrasonic transducer array patch comprises a multiplicity of subelements that are switchably reconfigurable to form elements having different shapes, e.g., annular rings. Each subelement comprises a plurality of interconnected cMUT cells that are not switchably disconnectable. The use of cMUT patches will provide the ability to interrogate a three-dimensional space electronically (i.e. without mechanical beam steering) with ultrasound, using a transducer device that is thin and lightweight enough to stick to the patient's skin like an EKG electrode. The ultrasound device can track the fetal heart in three-dimensional space as it moves due to the mother's motion or the motion of the unborn child within the womb.

An ultrasonic transducer device comprising: an ultrasonic transducer array micromachined on a substrate; flexible electrical connections connected to the transducer array; and a body of acoustically attenuative material that supports the substrate and the flexible electrical connections. The acoustic backing material may contain additional features, such as tabs or notches, for use in positioning the transducer on fixtures during manufacturing or positioning the transducer within a housing during final assembly. Tabs or other features that are used only during manufacturing may be subsequently removed from the device. The MUT device itself may also be thinned so as to provide flexibility as desired. The backing material is preferably matched in acoustic impedance to the silicon wafer so as to prevent reflection at the interface of any acoustic energy propagating rearward, i.e., in the direction away from the device front surface. The backing material may also possess a high thermal conductivity to assist in removal of heat from the device.

An ultrasonic therapeutic device capable of multipoint transmitting includes a substrate (5), on which an ultrasonic transducer array is arranged. Wherein, each of the ultrasonic transducers in the ultrasonic transducer array can independently focus. The device of the present invention has a simple structure and a good focusing performance. There is no interference among the ultrasonic transducers. Therefore, the energy of ultrasonic wave is transmitted by predetermined route with high utilization ratio.

A curved sensor device, such as an ultrasonic transducer array, is fabricated from a flat micromachined sensor (such as cMUT or pMUT) array constructed using micromachined electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) techniques. The device comprises: a support structure comprising a spine having a profile that is generally curved and a multiplicity of teeth extending from one side of the curved spine; and a multiplicity of sensors built on the support structure. The spine can be bent forward or backward and attached to a curved front face of a support member, thereby causing the sensors to adopt a curved array.

NDT inspection of an austenitic weld between two CRA Clad pipes using a phased ultrasonic transducer array system is described. The method may be performed during laying of gas / oil fatigue sensitive pipelines, for example, at sea. Two types of UT inspection may be generated simultaneously by a Phased Array on each side (Upstream and Downstream) of a girth weld. Firstly, mode converted longitudinal waves are used. These waves have properties that they propagate well. Shear waves are also used. The combination of these two ultrasonic waves, with the addition of surface waves, enables 100% of the girth weld to be inspected to the standard required in fatigue sensitive welds, such as Steel Catenary Risers. Shear waves and compression waves are emitted substantially contemporaneously. Defects may be detected and measured using time of flight information and amplitudes of radiation detected on reflection and on diffraction from the defect.

Apparatus, systems, and methods for inspecting a structure are provided which use a sensor holder constructed from rapid prototyping, such as stereolithography, and which is configured to support a plurality of inspection sensors typically arranged in an ordered matrix array and possibly with one or more additional inspection sensors aligned for inspection of difficult to inspect features of a structure such as radius corner or edge features. Rapid prototype integrated matrix array inspection apparatus, systems, and methods provide fast and efficient methods of constructing custom inspection devices.

An integrated circuit is fabricated by micromachining a hexagonal array of cMUT elements on top of a substrate comprising a hexagonal array of CMOS cells. Each cMUT element overlies a respective CMOS cell in one-to-one correspondence. During layout of the mask for micromachining the cMUT layer, either the hexagonal pattern or the alignment key is rotated until an axis of symmetry of the hexagonal pattern is aligned with an axis of the alignment key. Later, when the mask is superimposed on the CMOS substrate, the alignment key on the mask is aligned with an alignment key on the substrate. This ensures that the cMUT elements formed by optical lithography will be matched to the CMOS cells.

A capacitive microfabricated transducer array used for 3-D imaging, with a relatively large elevation dimension and a bias control of the elevation aperture in space and time, confers the same benefits of mechanical translation, except that image cross-sections are electronically rather than mechanically scanned, and are registered very accurately in space. The 3-D cMUT, when combined with elevation bias control and convex curvature in elevation, increases the volume interrogated by the electronic scanning, thus improving field of view. Further still, the 3-D cMUT can be combined Fresnel focusing of the elevation section to improve the elevation focus.

The invention provides a flexible ultrasonic transducer array, which comprises at least two ultrasonic transducer units and flexible layer medium. The ultrasonic transducer is arranged in the flexible layer medium or on the surface of the flexible layer medium in the form of array; an ultrasonic device comprises at least two ultrasonic transducer units, an ultrasonic emitter / ultrasonic transceiver, ultrasonic coupling medium, a microprocessor and flexible layer medium, and the ultrasonic transducer unit is arranged in or on the surface of flexible layer medium in the form of array to form flexible ultrasonic transducer array; ultrasonic transducer array and the ultrasonic device also comprises a shape scanner / shape sensor which is used for measuring superficial shape information of flexible ultrasonic transducer array and helping ultrasonic beam focus and orient. As flexible ultrasonic transducer array can attach to body position with different superficial shapes, the technical proposal provided by the invention can realize the effect of ultrasonic treatment / ultrasonic imaging which can be realized by the prior art.

An ultrasonic transducer array, and a method for manufacturing it, having a plurality of transducer elements aligned along an array axis in an imaging plane. Each transducer element includes a piezoelectric layer and one or more acoustic matching layers. The piezoelectric layer has a concave front surface overlayed by a front electrode and a rear surface overlayed by a rear electrode. The shape of each transducer element is selected such that it is mechanically focused into the imaging plane. A backing support holds the plurality of transducer elements in a predetermined relationship along the array axis such that each element is mechanically focused in the imaging plane.

The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes an ultrasonic transducer array in which ultrasonic transducer elements are two-dimensionally arranged; and a controller configured to control the ultrasonic transducer elements to transmit ultrasonic signals and control the ultrasonic transducer elements arranged in rows of the ultrasonic transducer array to sequentially receive ultrasonic echo signals.

The invention discloses a flexible integrated ultrasonic transducer, which is integrated by an organic thin-film transistor and a piezoelectric sensor. The flexible integrated ultrasonic transducer consists of a substrate, a moisture-proof isolation layer, a source drain electrode, a semiconductor thin-film layer, a gate dielectric layer, a gate electrode layer, an electrical signal coupling layer, a piezoelectric film layer, an electrode layer and an ultrasonic coupling layer in turn. In order to conveniently prepare a two-dimensional flexible ultrasonic transducer array, a layer of silicon dioxide thin film is deposited on a PET substrate and is used for isolating moisture. The piezoelectric material serving a PVDF thin film of an ultrasonic transducer has the advantages of good piezoelectric performance, low acoustic impedance, and good acoustic impedance matching with water and organisms. Therefore, the sensitivity is improved and the frequency band is widened. High flexibility ofthe PVDF thin film provides good technical basis for integrating the piezoelectric sensor. By adopting the organic thin-film transistor as a built-in signal amplifier, the gain and signal-to-noise ratio are increased, and the anti-jamming capability is improved.

The present invention relates to a device for the ultrasonic stimulation of a neural tissue. A control and data communication unit receives a control command to generate a pulse parameter and a beam-forming parameter. The ultrasonic echo radio frequency data outputted by an echo receiving unit is received and is transmitted to a control and ultrasonic imaging unit. A pulse excitation unit generates a high voltage pulse sequence according to the pulse parameter. The echo receiving unit composes ultrasonic echo radio frequency data according to the beam-forming parameter by using ultrasonic echo. The control and ultrasonic imaging unit emits a control command according to a user operation. The ultrasonic imaging of a target neural tissue scanning area is carried out according to the ultrasonic echo radio frequency data. An ultrasonic transducer array is controlled to be in a neural simulation state or an ultrasonic imaging state according to the high voltage pulse sequence. According to the technical scheme of the utility model, a method of sharing the ultrasonic transducer array by ultrasonic stimulation and ultrasonic imaging is employed, the real-time visualization of an ultrasonic neural stimulation process is realized, and the dynamic adjustment of stimulation target position and stimulation effect evaluation is helped.

The embodiment of the invention provides a full screen fingerprint acquisition method and a mobile terminal. The full screen fingerprint acquisition method and the mobile terminal are characterized in that an ultrasonic transducer array is arranged below a touch screen of the mobile terminal; and the ultrasonic transducer array includes N independent fingerprint acquisition areas, and N is an integer and is greater than 1. The full screen fingerprint acquisition method includes the steps: when the touch screen senses a contact substance, obtaining a press area, of the touch screen, pressed by the contact substance; determining M independent fingerprint acquisition areas corresponding to the press area, in the N independent fingerprint acquisition areas, wherein M is a positive integer and is smaller than N; and using the ultrasonic transducer array corresponding to the M independent fingerprint acquisition areas to acquire the images of the contact substance. The full screen fingerprint acquisition method can activate the ultrasonic energy transducers of the corresponding areas to perform fingerprint acquisition during the process of ultrasonic full screen fingerprint identification, so as to reduce the power consumption of the mobile terminal.

A diagnostic ultrasonic probe for use in body cavities has at its tip an ultrasonic transducer array, which has a layered structure wherein a flexible circuit board, an electric circuit, a backing material, a piezoelectric element array, an acoustic impedance matching layer and an acoustic lens are formed atop another on a supporting member. The electric circuit includes at least one of amplifiers for amplifying echo signals from ultrasonic transducers, switches for switching over between sending the echo signals from the ultrasonic transducers and receiving drive signals for exciting the ultrasonic transducers, a multiplexer for selective-switching between the echo signals as well as between the drive signals, an A / D converter for converting the echo signals from an analog form to a digital form, and a D / A converter for converting the drive signals from a digital form to an analog form.