General Electric Company

Andreas Kremsl

Reinhold Bruestle

Thomas Rittenschober

Manuel Schoenauer

David A Chartrand

Scott William Easterbrook

Erwin Fosodeder

Rainer Schröder

Systems are provided for the arrangement of decoupled electric and acoustic modules for a transducer array of an ultrasound probe. In one embodiment, the decoupled modules are independently coupled to a flex interconnect, apart from one another, allowing for electric communication between all modules through the flex interconnect. As one example, an ultrasound transducer array for an ultrasound probe comprises an acoustic backing, a flex interconnect coupled to the backing at a first surface of the flex interconnect, a matrix acoustic array coupled to a second surface of the flex interconnect, the second surface opposite the first surface, and an electric module coupled to the second surface of the flex interconnect at a location spaced away from where the matrix acoustic array is coupled to the flex interconnect.

Ultrasound transducer array with separated acoustic and electric module

An ultrasound probe and method of forming an ultrasound probe are provided. The ultrasound probe comprises a two-dimensional (2D) transducer assembly having transducer elements arranged in rows and columns. The transducer elements have front and rear surfaces. The front surface is configured to transmit and receive ultrasound signals to and from an object of interest. A thin film flex circuit extends along the rear surface of the transducer assembly. The flex circuit has conductive traces arranged in layers and enclosed within a common dielectric layer. The dielectric layer has a homogeneous composition surrounding the layers of the conductive traces. The conductive traces are electrically interconnected to the corresponding transducer elements.

Ultrasound probe with thin film flex circuit and methods of providing same

Various embodiments include a system and method that enhance performance of an ultrasound system by dynamically changing an impedance of a transmit/receive switch. The system can include a transmit/receive switch and a low noise amplifier. The transmit/receive switch may be configured to switch between a transmit phase and a receive phase of an ultrasound scan. The transmit/receive switch may provide a receive signal communicated from an ultrasound transducer to a low noise amplifier when in the receive phase. An impedance of the transmit/receive switch may be dynamically adjusted by changing a resistance of the transmit/receive switch while the transmit/receive switch is in the receive phase. The low noise amplifier may be configured to amplify the receive signal. In various embodiments, a gain of the low noise amplifier is independent of the resistance of the transmit/receive switch.

Method and system for dynamically changing an impedance of a transmit/receive switch

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Zipf, Austria

Andreas Kremsl