Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.V.

Martin Pekar

Martinus Bernardus Van Der Mark

Wendy Uyen Dittmer

An ultrasound system () for imaging a volumetric region comprising a region of interest () comprising: a probe having an array of CMUT transducers () adapted to transmit ultrasound beams and receive returning echo signals over the volumetric region; a beamformer () coupled to the array and adapted to control ultrasound beam transmission and provide ultrasound image data of the volumetric region; a transducer controller () coupled to the beamformer and adapted to vary driving pulse characteristics of the CMUT transducers, a region of interest identifier () enabling an identification of a region of interest on the basis of the ultrasound image data; a beam path analyzer () responsive to the ROI identification and arranged to detect an attenuating tissue type in between the probe and the ROI based on a depth variation in attenuation of the received signal; wherein the transducer controller is further adapted to change, based on the attenuating tissue type detection, at least one parameter of the driving pulse characteristics.

Ultrasound system with a tissue type analyzer

An ultrasound system () is disclosed that comprises a probe () including an array () of CMUT (capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer) cells (), each cell comprising a substrate () carrying a first electrode (), the substrate being spatially separated from a flexible membrane () including a second electrode () by a gap (); and a bias voltage source () coupled to said probe and adapted to provide the respective first electrodes and second electrodes of at least some of the CMUT cells with a monotonically varying bias voltage including a monotonically varying frequency modulation in a transmission mode of said probe such that the CMUT cells are operated in a collapsed state and transmit at least one chirped pulse during said transmission mode. Such a system for instance may be an ultrasound imaging system or an ultrasound therapeutic system. An ultrasonic pulse generation method using such as system is also disclosed.

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Martin Pekar