Hewlett-packard Company

Walnut Technologies

James T Fearnside

Wojtek Sudol

Hewlett E Melton, Jr

Rodney J Solomon

Thomas P Stephens

Martin K Mason

Claudio Zanelli

Jerry G Leach

George Gruner

The effect of ultrasound irradiation of a human or other animal body portion is enhanced by operating the body portion as a trapped mode resonator. The intensity and location of resonances within the body portion is controlled by controlling such variables as the amplitude, frequency and/or phase of the ultrasound irradiation. This minimizes the overall energy required to be applied to the body portion in order to achieve a desired localized intensity level.

Non focussed method of exciting and controlling acoustic fields in animal body parts

An endoscopic ultrasound probe for use in transesophageal echo cardiography comprises a rotatable ultrasound transducer array for obtaining two-dimensional cross-sectional images along a variety of scan planes. The array is formed of a plurality of transducer elements and rotates about an axis perpendicular to the plane of the transducer elements. The rotating array defines a circular region of rotation and has a surface area which substantially matches the area of the circular region of rotation within the probe. More specifically, the elements of the array have varying mechanical lengths such that the rotatable array may have a circular shape, a substantially circular shaped or an N-sided polygonal shape where N is an integer greater than four.

Transesophageal ultrasound probe

An endoscope ultrasound probe for use with an ultrasound imaging system in transesophageal echo cardiography comprises a motorized positioning system which provides for automated control of an ultrasound transducer array. The positioning system employs an electric motor for rotating the array which is positioned in the distal end of the probe. A switch mechanism may be manipulated to provide power to actuate the motor. The motor is mechanically coupled to the array providing the capability to rotate the array to any angular position to provide a plurality of scan planes for obtaining a plurality of corresponding two-dimensional cross-sectional images. Further, the positioning system may comprise a position feedback mechanism coupled to the array for providing remote imaging system electronics with array position indications corresponding to each of a plurality of corresponding two-dimensional cross-sectional images. Also, the positioning system may be electronically controlled by a controller in the imaging system for providing three-dimensional images of a subject.

Transducer positioning system

The base for an array of piezoelectric crystals contains tungsten particles that are compression-molded in a binder, the size of the particles at and near the surface on which the crystals are mounted being smaller than the size of the particles remote from the surface.

Stratified particle absorber

An electrical cable having a shielding comprised of knit or knit-graded wire having metal coatings.

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Lexington, MA, United States of America

James T Fearnside