General Electric Company

Alan Tai

Frederic Lanteri

Flavien Daloz

Scott William Easterbrook

Charles Edward Baumgartner

Menachem Halmann

Cynthia A Owen

Jean-Francois Gelly

Edouard Dacruz

Serge Gerard Calisti

Jian Zhong Zhao

Maxence Borot

Hiroshi Isono

Jeremie Barrel

Jianzhong Zhao

Fan Zheng

Various methods and systems are provided for maintaining polarization of an ultrasound probe and increasing image quality of an image generated during an imaging procedure. As one example, a method for an ultrasound imaging system may include executing one or more imaging sequences with an ultrasound transducer; and applying a repolarization sequence to the ultrasound transducer one or more of before, after, and interleaved between the one or more imaging sequences, where the repolarization sequence is separate from the one or more imaging sequences.

Methods and system for maintaining polarization of an ultrasound transducer

A system includes an ultrasound patch probe and brackets having a body and a base. The body includes a coupler and a hollow interior portion. The coupler is operable to receive the probe at a pre-defined ultrasound acquisition angle. The coupler defines a probe opening to provide the probe access to the hollow interior portion of the body. The coupler of each of the brackets is arranged to receive the probe at a different pre-defined ultrasound acquisition angle. The base surrounds a perimeter of the body and defines a bracket opening that extends through the base to provide access to the hollow interior portion of the body. The base includes a bottom surface operable to be secured against skin of a patient. The ultrasound patch probe is communicatively coupled to an ultrasound imaging system and detachably coupleable to the coupler of any selected one of the brackets.

Method and system for enhanced ultrasound image acquisition using ultrasound patch probes with interchangeable brackets

An ultrasound transducer and an ultrasound imaging system including an acoustic layer with a plurality of transducer elements and a dematching layer coupled to the acoustic layer. The dematching layer has an acoustic impedance greater than the acoustic layer and the dematching layer has a thickness that varies in order to alter a bandwidth of the ultrasound probe.

Ultrasound transducer and ultrasound imaging system with a variable thickness dematching layer

A method for forming an acoustical stack for an ultrasound probe comprises partly dicing a single crystal piezoelectric material to form single crystal pieces that are partly separated by a plurality of kerfs. The single crystal piezoelectric material comprises a carrier layer. The kerfs are filled with a kerf filling material to form a single crystal composite and the carrier layer is removed. At least one matching layer is attached to the single crystal composite, and dicing within the kerfs is accomplished to form separate acoustical stacks from the single crystal composite.

Method for forming an acoustical stack for an ultrasound probe

Ultrasound transducers and methods of making ultrasound transducers with improved thermal characteristics are provided. An ultrasound transducer includes a piezoelectric element defining a front side and a back side. The ultrasound transducer includes a lens connected to the front side of the piezoelectric element, a heat sink connected to the back side of the piezoelectric element, and a backside matching layer disposed between the piezoelectric element and the heat sink. The backside matching layer is thermally connected to the piezoelectric element and the heat sink, and the backside matching layer is configured to conduct heat from the piezoelectric element to the heat sink.

Thermal transfer and acoustic matching layers for ultrasound transducer

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Phoenix, AZ, United States of America

Alan Tai