Olympus Corporation

Olympus Medical Systems Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Katsuhiro Wakabayashi

Hideo Adachi

Yukihiko Sawada

Akiko Mizunuma

Takuya Imahashi

Kazuya Matsumoto

Mamoru Hasegawa

Sunao Sato

Takanao Fujimura

Tomoki Funakubo

Miyuki Murakami

Satoshi Yoshida

Hiroshi Ito

Shinji Kaneko

Kazuhisa Karaki

Jin Hiraoka

Yoshiyuki Okuno

Masayoshi Esashi

Shinji Yasunaga

Yoshitaka Kamiya

Masayoshi Omura

Kenichi Nishina

Ryo Ohta

Kiyoshi Nemoto

Shuji Otani

Kozaburo Suzuki

Naomi Shimoda

Etsuko Omura

Masaaki Amikura

Ki Doh

Etsuko Omura, Legal Representative

Sayuri Sato

Kosei Tamiya

Hironaka Miyaki

Ryo Ota

Hiroyuki Imabayashi

Takashi Ouchi

Teppei Tsuruta

Takashi Abe

Tomoyuki Hatakeyama

Yoshihisa Taniguchi

Masahiko Komuro

Takeharu Nakazato

Kei Irie

Yukihiko Shimamura

Hidemichi Aoki

Yu Kondo

Toshiharu Tsubata

Yougo Imai

Tatsuo Kaimai

Atsushi Ohsawa

Yoshiyjki Okuno

Shinan Wang

Atsushi Osawa

Kousei Tamiya

Kozue Kurihara

Okuno Yoshiyuki

Shinji c/o Olympus Corporation Yasunaga

Hideo c/o Olympus Corporation Adachi

Kiyoshi c/o Olympus Corporation Nemoto

Mizunuma Akiko

An ultrasound transducer includes: a tube; a transducer cable which is fixed to an end portion side of the tube and close to an outer periphery of the tube; a plurality of piezoelectric elements which are arranged along a circumferential direction surrounding a central axis of the tube to face an outer peripheral surface of the tube, each piezoelectric element being configured to output an ultrasound wave according to an electric signal input from the transducer cable, and convert an ultrasound wave input from an external portion into an electric signal; and a plurality of relays which are electrically connected respectively to a plurality of signal lines included in the transducer cable and the plurality of piezoelectric elements, the relays being configured to relay the plurality of signal lines and the plurality of piezoelectric elements.

Ultrasound transducer and ultrasound endoscope

An ultrasonic transducer module including: a plurality of piezoelectric elements, each being aligned in the same direction that is a longitudinal direction thereof; an electrode formed on a surface of each of the piezoelectric elements; a wiring member configured to be joined with the electrode and electrically connected with the electrode; and a dematching layer provided on a surface of each of the piezoelectric elements, the surface being opposite to another surface of the corresponding piezoelectric element on which the electrode and the wiring member are joined.

Ultrasonic transducer module, ultrasonic endoscope and processing method of ultrasonic transducer module

An ultrasound transducer element including a cell group constituted by a plurality of ultrasound transducer cells, wherein each of the plurality of ultrasound transducer cells includes a lower electrode arranged on a substrate, a membrane including an upper electrode arranged facing the lower electrode with a cavity positioned therebetween, and a plurality of pillars forming the cavity by supporting the membrane, and each cavity mutually communicates with one another.

Ultrasound transducer element and ultrasound endoscope

An ultrasound transducer element includes a plurality of electrostatic capacitance type ultrasound cells each having a lower electrode portion and a membrane including an upper electrode portion that are oriented and disposed via a cavity circular in plan view, and a thickness of the cavity monotonously decreases in a curved manner toward an outer circumferential portion from a center portion of the cavity.

An ultrasound transducer according to the invention includes: a piezoelectric element; an electrode formed on a surface of the piezoelectric element; a conductive wire including a distal end that is in contact with the electrode; and a metal film formed by an electroplating method, the metal film coating at least the distal end of the wire and the electrode that are in contact with each other and thereby electrically connecting the electrode and the wire.

Ultrasound transducer and ultrasound transducer manufacturing method

An ultrasound element includes a silicon substrate, a lower electrode layer that has a plurality of lower electrode sections, and a plurality of lower wiring sections, and is connected to a lower electrode terminal to which a drive signal and a bias signal are applied, a lower insulating layer, an upper insulating layer in which a plurality of cavities smaller than the respective lower electrode sections are formed, an upper electrode layer that has a plurality of upper electrode sections that are disposed to face the respective lower electrode sections via the respective cavities, and are smaller than the lower electrode sections and larger than the cavities, and a plurality of upper wiring sections, and is connected to an upper electrode terminal at a ground potential that detects a capacitance signal, and a protection layer.

Ultrasound element and ultrasound endoscope

A US element includes a silicon substrate, wherein a lower electrode layer that has a plurality of lower electrode sections, and a plurality of lower wiring sections, and is connected to a lower electrode terminal to which a drive signal and a bias signal are applied, a lower insulating layer, an upper insulating layer in which a plurality of cavities are formed, an upper electrode layer that has a plurality of upper electrode sections and a plurality of upper wiring sections, and is connected to an upper electrode terminal at a ground potential for detecting a capacitance signal, and a protection layer are sequentially stacked on the silicon substrate, and the US element further includes a shield electrode section that is formed at least at an upper side of the lower wiring sections, and is connected to a shield electrode terminal at a ground potential.

An ultrasound endoscope, having a cable for connecting the ultrasound endoscope to a driving apparatus, includes an insertion section insertable into a subject, a plurality of transducers provided at a distal end portion, an electrode formed in each of the transducers, a wiring section connected to the electrode to electrically connect the electrode and the cable, and matching circuits, at least one of which is provided at an end of or partway in each of the wiring section. The electrode, the wiring section, and the matching circuits are provided in each of the plurality of transducers. The cable includes a core wire and an insulating layer enwrapping the core wire and functions as a matching section that matches electric impedance of each of the transducers between the plurality of transducers and the driving apparatus by varying a thickness or quality of material of the insulating layer.

Ultrasound endoscope

A capacitive ultrasonic transducer (c-MUT) comprising a silicon substrate and a transducer element which comprises transducer cells, each of which is constituted by a first electrode equipped on the top surface of the silicon substrate, a second electrode placed opposite to the first electrode with a predetermined gap therefrom and a membrane for supporting the second electrode, wherein a trench is equipped between the adjacent transducers and a conductive film is formed in the trench.

Capacitive ultrasonic transducer and endo cavity ultrasonic diagnosis system using the same

An ultrasound transducer array according to an embodiment includes a substrate, a plurality of groove-like recesses arranged at a predetermined interval on one surface of the substrate, a cell region arranged between the recesses on the one surface side of the substrate, a flexible film configured to cover the substrate and the cell region and having fragility lower than fragility of the substrate, and a dividing groove having a width smaller than a width of the recess and reaching from the other surface of the substrate to the flexible film in the recess.

Ultrasound transducer array, method of manufacturing ultrasound transducer array and ultrasound endoscope

An ultrasonic transducer according to the invention includes a flexible sheet, a rigid body portion including a lower electrode made of at least a thin-film conductive material on a surface of the flexible sheet, a dividing portion which divides the rigid body portion into segments, and a plurality of transducer elements including the divided rigid body portion, has at least one transducer cell composed of one of the segments, an insulating partition portion bonded to the segment, an air gap portion surrounded by the partition portion, an upper electrode opposed to the lower electrode extending to the partition portion to sandwich the air gap portion therebetween, and an upper insulating layer formed on the upper electrode, and includes an upper protection film which continuously covers a surface portion of the transducer elements and the dividing portion.

Ultrasonic transducer, method for manufacturing ultrasonic transducer, and ultrasonic endoscope

An ultrasound transducer includes a substrate and a lower electrode layer, a lower insulating layer, an upper insulating layer, and an upper electrode layer. The lower insulating layer and the upper insulating layer are arranged to be opposed to each other via an air gap section. The upper insulating layer and the lower insulating layer are different in a material and thickness and satisfy Equation 1 below. In Equation 1, Krepresents a relative dielectric constant of the lower insulating layer, Krepresents a relative dielectric constant of the upper insulating layer, Trepresents thickness of the lower insulating layer, Trepresents thickness of the upper insulating layer, &#x3c1;(x) represents a charge density distribution in the lower insulating layer, and &#x3c1;(y) represents a charge density distribution in the upper insulating layer. 

Ultrasound transducer and ultrasound diagnostic apparatus

An ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes: transmission and reception signal lines that send transmission and reception signals of ultrasound to a plurality of ultrasound transducers; signal determining portions near the ultrasound transducers and determine a selection signal for selecting an ultrasound transducer to be driven or a readout signal for reading out the selection signal, the selection signal being sent out in synchronization with a transmission signal for forming the transmission and reception signal, and couple the ultrasound transducer to be driven with the transmission and reception signal line according to a result of the determination; and direct current blocking/clipping circuits that block a direct current bias component superimposed on the transmission and reception signal and sent via the transmission and reception signal line, and clip a waveform with large amplitude. The transmission and reception signal line sends the transmission and reception signal with the selection signal or the readout signal.

Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus

It becomes possible to obtain high sound pressure in a high frequency domain by a capacitive ultrasonic transducer which comprises a membrane on which one electrode is formed, a cavity constructed in its backface, and a substrate on which these are mounted and supported and on whose surface an electrode is provided, on a surface in an ultrasonic transmission and reception side, characterized in that the membrane comprises tow or more layers, and at least one layer of them comprises a high dielectric constant film.

Capacitive ultrasonic transducer, production method thereof, and capacitive ultrasonic probe

An ultrasonic transducer fabrication method including: depositing a conductive material on an insulating layer, partially etching the conductive material to form lower electrodes; depositing an insulating material to cover the lower electrodes to form a first insulating layer and depositing a sacrificial material thereon, performing etching, to create cavities and a channel-shaped sacrificial layer to communicate the cavities; depositing an insulating material on the first insulating layer to form a second insulating layer; partially etching the second insulating layer to form holes; etching and removing the sacrificial layer through the holes to form the cavities and channels; depositing a conductive material on the second insulating layer to plug the holes and form a conductive film; partially etching the conductive film to form upper electrodes and sealing portions which plug the holes; and forming a protective film on the second insulating layer to cover the upper electrodes and the sealing portions.

Method of fabricating an ultrasonic transducer

Growing community of inventors

Hachioji, Japan

Katsuhiro Wakabayashi