Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Other

Hewlett-packard Company

Agilent Technologies, Inc.

Koninklijke Phillips Electronics N.v.

George Anthony Brock-Fisher

Patrick G Rafter

Mckee Dunn Poland

Thomas J Hunt

Bernard Joseph Savord

Wojtek Sudol

David Prater

Karl E Thiele

Lucien Johannes Breems

Antonia Cornelia Van Rens

William J Ossmann

Gary Allen Schwartz

Richard Edward Davidsen

Raf Lodewijk Jan Roovers

Steven Russell Freeman

Bout Marcelis

Gregory G Vogel

Jerome F Witt

Michael Scarsella

Theodore Philip Fazioli

Junho Song

Sanjiv Kaul

James R Mniece

Richard B Smith

Jodi Lt Perry

Kevin Wei

Carl Dean Herickhoff

Jodi L T Perry

Paul R Kranz

The invention relates to a capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducer (CMUT) cell () comprising a cell floor () having a first electrode (); a cell membrane () having a second electrode (') which opposes the first electrode and vibrates during transmission or reception of acoustic energy; a transmitter/receiver coupled to the first and second electrodes which causes the cell membrane to vibrate at an acoustic frequency and/or receives signals at an acoustic frequency; and an acoustic lens (), overlaying the cell membrane, and having an inner surface opposing the cell membrane and an outer, patient-facing surface. According to the present invention the acoustic lens comprises at least one layer of a material selected from the group of: polybudatiene, polyether block amide (PEBAX), polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and buthylrubber.

Capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducer cell

The present invention relates to an integrated circuit arrangement comprising: &#x2014;a plurality of capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer (CMUT) cells () arranged in a hexagonal array, wherein said hexagonal array comprises a plurality of alternating even and odd columns (') of CMUT cells () being parallel to a column direction (y), wherein the odd columns (&#x2032;) are arranged offset to the even columns () by one-half of a dimension of a CMUT cell () in said column direction (y), &#x2014;an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) () comprising a plurality of transmit-receive (TR) cells (), wherein each CMUT cell () overlays a respective TR cell () in a one-to-one correspondence, wherein the ASIC () further comprises an offset regulator () for providing different beamforming delays to even and odd columns (&#x2032;) of the hexagonal array of CMUT cells () to account for the offset in the column direction (y).

Integrated circuit arrangement for a hexagonal CMUT ultrasound transducer array with offset columns

The present invention relates to a capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducer (CMUT) device () for transmitting and/or receiving ultrasound waves, comprising at least one CMUT cell (). The CMUT cell () comprises a substrate () comprising a first electrode (), a membrane () comprising a second electrode (), at least one dielectric layer () between the first electrode () and the second electrode (), and a cavity () formed between the substrate () and the membrane (). The CMUT device () further comprises an operating bias voltage source () for supplying an operating bias voltage (V) of a first polarity between the first and second electrode () during transmitting and/or receiving ultrasound waves, and a charging voltage source () for supplying an additional charging voltage (V) between the first and second electrode (), the second polarity being the reverse polarity of the first polarity. The present invention further relates to a method of operating such a CMUT device.

Capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducer device with charging voltage source

An acoustic probe includes a plurality of acoustic array components separated and spaced apart from each other. Each of the acoustic array components includes: an array of acoustic element circuits disposed contiguous to each other at a first pitch; a plurality of pads each corresponding to one of the acoustic element circuits and formed within a circuitry area of the corresponding acoustic element circuit, the pads being disposed at a second pitch; a plurality of interconnection bumps each corresponding to one of the pads and being disposed in electrical connection with the corresponding pad, wherein the interconnection bumps are disposed at a third pitch; and a plurality of acoustic transducer elements on the interconnection bumps. The acoustic transducer elements are disposed at a fourth pitch. At least two of the first, second, third, and fourth pitches are different than each other.

Acoustic probe with components of acoustic elements having different pitches than each other

The present invention relates to a driver device () for driving a load () having a plurality of separate capacitive load elements (), in particular an ultrasound transducer having a plurality of transducer elements (), comprising: input terminals () for connecting the driver device () to power supply (); a plurality of output terminals () each for connecting the driver device () to one of load elements (), a first controllable switch () connected to a first of the input terminals (), and a plurality of driving elements () each having a second controllable switch () and a resistor () connected in series to each other, wherein each of the driving elements () is connected in series with the first controllable switch () and to a second of the input terminals (), and wherein each of the output terminals () is connected to one of the driving elements () for powering the load elements ().

Driver device and driving method for driving a load, in particular an ultrasound transducer

The present disclosure relates to contrast imaging. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to apparatus and methods for contrast imaging in which the elevation beamwidth is controlled to reduce image artifacts, which result from contrast agent being carried into the image region by motion or respiration and not by reperfusion.

Elevation beamwidth control for contrast imaging

Elevation beamwidth control for control for contrast imaging

The method of the invention controls an ultrasound system to identify a boundary between a tissue region and a blood-filled region that lies within an ROI. The method initially administers a contrast agent to the region of interest and then transmits first and second ultrasound beams at a different power levels into the ROI. Signal returns from the first and second beams are processed to derive first and second digital values, respectively. It has been determined that, under certain circumstances, a phase change of echo returns occurs at the boundary between tissue and blood-containing contrast agent. Detection of the phase change enables precise identification of the boundary, based upon the time segment in which the phase change is detected. Accordingly, time segment values of the first and second stored digital values are then phase-compared to enable determination of a boundary location between the tissue region and the blood-filled region by detection of the phase change.

Acoustic border detection using power modulation

Systems and methods for enhanced color-flow imaging of contrast-agent perfused blood vessels and other tissues within a patient's body are disclosed. The method generally comprises, introducing one or more contrast agents into the body, power-modulating transmit pulses into the body, receiving echoes from the body, processing the received echoes to reduce tissue-generated echoes and echoes from stationary contrast agent, using a color-flow processor to generate a color-encoded display responsive to contrast-agent motion. The method may be implemented by a system with a an excitation-signal source, a transducer, an ultrasound-processing system having multiple image processors including a color-flow processor, as well as, a clutter filter, and an arbiter, and a display-processing system.

Contrast-agent enhanced color-flow imaging

A receive beamformer, and ultrasound system incorporating such a receive beamformer, is constructed to implement multi-bit analog to digital conversion in such a way that the need for gain control in the channel architecture preceding the digital conversion circuitry is obviated. Accordingly, the beamformer and any ultrasound system incorporating it may realize a rigorous level of ADC performance at desirable output rates, and a lower cost. Preferably, the invention construction realizes a level of performance by which CW Doppler may be digitized in the same manner as very wide-band pulsed-wave signals.

Ultrasonic signal acquisition in the digital beamformer

Ultrasonic imaging to receive a signal from contrast agent microbubbles in arterioles of a myocardium, without being masked by a signal from microbubbles in capillaries of the myocardium. For example, high power ultrasonic energy is emitted to destroy microbubbles in the arterioles and capillaries. A time delay passes from the destruction. The time delay is sufficiently long to allow the arterioles to refill with microbubbles and sufficiently short so that the capillaries do not completely refill with microbubbles. Ultrasonic imaging is then performed to receive a signal between harmonics from the microbubbles refilled in the arterioles. Various other destructive and non-destructive imaging techniques are disclosed.

Ultrasonic imaging to detect coronary artery stenosis at rest

A beamformer for an ultrasound imaging system is provided, the ultrasound imaging system having a probe having a transducer array for transmitting and receiving analog signals, and a personal computer. The beamformer includes a beamformer software application module configured for execution by the computing device for performing at least partial beamforming processing on digital data transmitted between the transducer array and the computing device, and means for exchanging signals and data between the transducer array and the computing device and performing at least one of A/D and D/A conversions on the exchanged signals and data. In the preferred embodiment, the beamformer further includes a module integrated within architecture of the computing device, wherein the integrated module is preferably Random Access Memory (RAM) included in storage means of the computing device. A method is further provided for performing a transmit beamforming process in an ultrasound system having a computing device and a probe including a transducer array, the method including the steps of performing transmit beamforming processing in the computing device in accordance with transmit settings to generate digital transmit data, storing the digital transmit in the data storage memory, retrieving the digital transmit data from the storage memory, converting the digital transmit data to analog transmit signals, and transmitting the analog transmit signals to the transducer array. A method is further provided for performing a receive beamforming process in an ultrasound system having a computing device including storage memory, an interface module and a probe including a transducer array, the method including the steps of receiving analog signals from the transducer array, converting the analog signals to digital data, storing the digital data in the storage memory, retrieving the digital data from the storage memory, and performing receive beamforming operations on the digital data by the computing device.

System and method for interfacing an ultrasound transducer with a computing device performing beamforming processing

An ultrasound device having a transducer propagating and receiving sound signals to/from a blood vessel of a person being examined for caisson's disease where the blood vessel is at above normal surface atmospheric pressure and a controller determining onset of the caisson's disease by analyzing the received sound signals from the transducer to determine presence of naturally occurring bubbles in the blood vessel during decompression of the blood vessel.

Ultrasound device to detect Caisson's disease

The present invention relates to a&rsqb; A device for producing an image of a body part into which a contrasting agent has been introduced, the device including an image detecting device modifying the contrasting agent to provide a modified image, and a processor acquiring and processing the modified image so as to create an image which represents a rate of flow of blood or other fluid in the body part. The device may be an ultrasound imaging device or may be a magnetic resonance imaging device.

Device for producing an on-line image of a body part into which a contrasting agent has been introduced

A system and method for fundamental real-time imaging of the non-linear response of tissue perfused with a contrast agent are disclosed. An image with increased sensitivity to non-linear responses can be achieved by detecting the ultrasound response at the fundamental frequency from tissue perfused with a contrast agent and excited by multiple excitation levels. The responses detected from the multiple excitation levels may be gain corrected in an amount corresponding to the difference in magnitude of the excitation levels, then mathematically combined. The mathematical manipulation serves to remove linear responses to the fundamental excitation from the detected image. An ultrasonic contrast agent and tissue imaging system can be implemented with a transducer, first and second transmitters, a receiver, a control system, a processing system and a display. The transmitters generate electrical signals that are translated by the transducer into first and second pressure waves respectively, the respective pressure waves being of different power magnitudes. A control system electrically coupled to the transmitters, the transducer, and a receiver, coordinates pressure wave transmissions and the reception of ultrasonic responses. A processing system removes linear responses leaving the non-linear responses from the contrast agent and the surrounding tissue. Lastly, a display configured to receive the non-linear response creates an image of the insonified contrast agent and surrounding tissue.

Growing community of inventors

Andover, MA, United States of America

George Anthony Brock-Fisher