Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Daniel Gerard Maier

Rachel M Kinicki

Grace M Saccardo

Michael Hoar

David G Miller

Charles R Dowdell

Joseph R Fallon

Dennis J Buckley

Donald W Lewallen

A thermal management system for a portable battery powered electronic device, and particularly, a portable battery powered ultrasound device, which controls the temperature of the device such that the external surface temperature satisfies medical safety regulatory requirements, and such that the heat generated by the device does not reduce battery life, reduce component life, decrease reliability of the device, or cause device shutdown because of overheating. A thermal management system monitors the respective temperatures of various system components, and, based on the monitored temperatures, performs control to cool the ultrasound system, maintaining the external surface temperature below the safety regulated temperatures and ensuring reliability of system components. The thermal management system controls the system temperature and external surface temperature by various measures, including controlling operation of a cooling fan; modifying system parameters to change an operating mode of the ultrasound system; controlling clocking of the system circuitry by selectively enabling or disabling circuitry; and modifying a charging profile of the battery.

Thermal management system for a portable ultrasound imaging device

An ultrasound imaging device including a display which displays an ultrasound image of an object (such as a portion of a body of a patient) and a soft keyboard displayed on the display, which enables entering of identification information relating to the ultrasound image. The soft keyboard replaces the ultrasound image during an identification entry mode, to easily enable the entry of the identification information. The identification information may be patient identification information or date/time information, for example. The ultrasound imaging device may include software which enables the soft keyboard to be displayed in a plurality of different languages.

Ultrasound imaging device having a soft keyboard for entering data

In accordance with the present invention, a compact flash technology is utilized in an ultrasound device for storing digital images. The digital images preferably are stored in a standard format, such as, for example, the JPEG format, so that no specialized software is required to access and view the images. Compact flash technology is readily available to consumers and generally is relatively inexpensive. Also, relatively low cost interfaces are available for PCs and some printers to enable the digital images stored on a compact flash disk to be easily downloaded to a PC or printer. Additionally, standard PCs typically are equipped with software that can read JPEG files. Therefore, personal users of the ultrasound device can easily download images to their PCs and access and view the images without the need for special equipment, training, or personnel. When stored in such a standard format, no additional software is needed to view the images and thus the user can use his or her PC to access and view the images at no additional expense, provided the PC is equipped with hardware and/or software associated with the format. Although the images preferably are stored in the JPEG format on the compact flash disk, the images may be stored in other formats, such as, for example, the TIFF format, which is also a standard image format. Specialized software, such as DICOM or DSR, may also be utilized with the present invention if desired.

Method and apparatus for storing image information in an ultrasound device

A software program executing externally to an ultrasound imaging device. The software program enters user control values for the ultrasound imaging device and calculates parameters based on the entered user control values. The parameters are then transferred to and stored in the ultrasound imaging device. The ultrasound imaging device includes parametrically defined machines controlled by the stored parameters to generate ultrasound images.

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Methuen, MA, United States of America

Daniel Gerard Maier