General Electric Company

University of Michigan

University of Washington

The Boeing Company

Acuson Corporation

Other

Endosonics Corporation

Bp Corporation North America Inc.

Q-dot, Inc.

Volcano Corporation

Volcano Therapeutics, Inc.

Ultrasound Medical Devices, Inc.

Matthew N O'Donnell

William E Engeler

Ivan Pelivanov

Gary E Georgeson

William Paul Motzer

Alan Frank Stewart

Charles S Desilets

Thomas E Linnenbrink

John T Pedicone

John J Bloomer

Douglas N Stephens

Steven R Freeman

Marshall K Quick

Marc A Morin

Jeffrey Reyner Kollgaard

Jill Paisley Bingham

James C Kennedy

Kutay F Ustuner

Steven Kenneth Brady

Clarence Lavere Gordon, Iii

Steven G Karr

Soon Joon Yoon

Michael J Eberle

Gary H Glover

John I Jackson

Kenneth B Welles, Ii

Lewis Jones Thomas, Iii

Jonathan M Rubin

Sharbel E Noujaim

James D Hamilton

Gerald Lea Litzza

Constantine Simopoulos

Anming He Cai

Kang Kim

William F Weitzel

Russell Witte

Ragnar Olafsson

Jinjun Xia

Chen-Wei Wei

Abraham Vereide

John Alexander Hossack

Norbert Joseph Pelc

Christopher Judson Hardy

Lowell Scott Smith

James R Baker, Jr

Richard Henry Bossi

Paul Arthur Bottomley

John W Allison

Albert Gee

William A Edelstein

Anne Lindsay Hall

Lingjie Jay Guo

Carl R Crawford

Peter B Roemer

Michael R Bailey

Robert J Dunki-Jacobs

Charles A Cain

Stephen W Flax

William D Barber

Oleg A Sapozhnikov

Vera Khokhlova

Timothy L Hall

Xiaohu Gao

Jing Yong Ye

Steven L Garverick

Theodore B Norris

Thomas L Vogelsong

Ruikang K Wang

Tatiana Khokhlova

Cameron James Brooks

Joo Ha Hwang

Jish M Wang

Jeffrey T Rahn

Richard B Bernardi

Mark G Magrane

Anming He

Kutay F &Uuml;st&uuml;ner

Ching-Chen Wu

David Bleam

Lajos P Balogh

Tueng T Shen

James Hamilton

Shai Ashkenazi

Shaozhen Song

Liang Gao

Adam Strickberger

Tong Li

Elena Petrova

Lukasz Ambrozinski

David Li

Sheng-Wen Huang

Daniel S Haviland

Sharbet E Noujaim

Congxian Jia

Gerald Vossler

Theodore J Kolias

Randy Ziegenbein

Thu-Mai Nguyen

Susanne M Milas

Stanislav Y Emelianov

Methods and systems for measuring one or more properties of a soft material employ air transmitted ultrasound that is reflected from the soft material to generate a mechanical wave in the soft material. A method of measuring one or more properties of a soft material includes transmitting ultrasound through air to an interface boundary between the soft material and air. Force is applied to the soft material by reflecting the ultrasound from the soft material. A mechanical wave is generated in the soft material as a result of the force applied to the soft material. Propagation of the mechanical wave in the soft material is measured with an imaging system. One or more properties of the soft material is determined based on the measured propagation of the mechanical wave in the soft material.

Non-contact acoustic radiation force based (ARF-based) generation of broad bandwidth mechanical waves using air-coupled ultrasound

A method for testing a structure using laser ultrasound includes steps of: (1) directing positioning light on a surface of the structure; (2) determining a spatial location and a spatial orientation of the surface from an evaluation of the positioning light reflected back from the surface; (3) directing pump light onto the surface to generate ultrasonic waves in the structure; (4) selectively locating a probe-light focal point of probe light on the surface, based on the spatial location determined for the surface; (5) selectively angularly orienting the probe light normal to the surface, based on the spatial orientation determined for the surface; and (6) directing the probe light onto the surface to detect a response to the ultrasonic waves.

Systems and methods for automatic alignment and focusing of light in laser ultrasound testing

A non-contact photoacoustic spectrophotometry system is configured to measure an absorption spectrum of a material. The system includes a modulated light source such as tunable pulsed laser that generates laser pulses to produce photoacoustic signals in the material. A non-contact detector monitors the surface of the container for the material. The detector includes a second light source, such as a continuous wave laser, focused on the surface of the container, and transmits reflected light to an interferometer, for example, a Sagnac interferometer. The interferometer produces an interference signal from the received light that is proportional to the acoustic pressure, which is transmitted to a computer to calculate an absorption coefficient. Using a plurality of wavelengths from the tunable pulsed laser, an absorption spectrum may be generated.

Non-contact photoacoustic spectrophotometry insensitive to light scattering

Methods and system for producing combined photoacoustic/ultrasonic image frames use a low-power narrow beam laser to direct sequential pulses along a path overlying an internal region of interest. Photoacoustic responses are received and used to generate sub-frames. Between each of the laser pulses a plurality of ultrasound pulse-echo beams are sequentially emitted towards the region of interest, and the reflections are received and used to generate ultrasound sub-frames. The photoacoustic sub-frames are combined to produce a photoacoustic frame, and the ultrasound sub-frames are combined to produce an ultrasound frame. The photoacoustic and ultrasound frames are combined to produce an image frame. The method and system are suitable for producing real-time, high-contrast video.

Real-time photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging system and method

Systems and methods process a measured ultrasonic response waveform to determine a well casing thickness and an acoustic impedance of a sealing medium surrounding the well casing. An array of simulated response waveforms corresponding to a set of candidate acoustic impedances for the sealing medium surrounding the well casing and a set of candidate well casing thicknesses is generated. A simulated response waveform from the array of simulated response waveforms is identified that best matches the measured response waveform so as to determine the sealing medium acoustic impedance.

Advanced downhole waveform interpretation

A method of detecting local material changes in a composite structure is presented. A pulsed laser beam is directed towards the composite structure comprised of a number of composite materials. Wide-band ultrasonic signals are formed in the composite structure when radiation of the pulsed laser beam is absorbed by the composite structure. The wide-band ultrasonic signals are detected to form data. The data is processed to identify a local frequency value for the composite structure. The local frequency value is used to determine if local material changes are present in the number of composite materials.

Composite inspection

A method of detecting material changes in a composite structure is presented. A pulsed laser beam is directed towards the composite structure comprised of a number of composite materials. Wide-band ultrasonic signals are formed in the composite structure when radiation of the pulsed laser beam is absorbed by the composite structure. The wide-band ultrasonic signals are detected to form data. The data comprises a number of ultrasonic A-scans. The data is processed to identify a plurality of frequency measurements for each of the number of ultrasonic A-scans. A frequency image is displayed using the plurality of frequency measurements. The material changes are represented in the frequency image.

A compact and portable apparatus for measuring properties of objects utilizing a fiber optic Sagnac interferometer is enabled. The fiber optic Sagnac interferometer may be a double differential Sagnac interferometer. The interferometer core may be implemented with fiber optic components including polarization maintaining optical fiber, and by utilizing an auto-balanced avalanche photodetector. An optical switch may be incorporated to maintain relatively low average probe signal power while allowing optimal peak probe signal power. The compact and portable apparatus may be configured to measure ultrasonic vibrations, a displacement of an object surface in response to ultrasonic vibrations, and/or a vibration speed of the object surface. A wideband light source may be amplified and stabilized. A sensor head of the interferometer may incorporate a collimator adjustable to block a central portion of the projected probe beam thereby at least in part enabling in-plane and out-of-plane measurements.

Compact portable double differential fiber optic Sagnac interferometer

A method of detecting inconsistencies in a structure is presented. A pulsed laser beam is directed towards the structure. A plurality of types of ultrasonic signals is formed in the structure when radiation of the pulsed laser beam is absorbed by the structure. The plurality of types of ultrasonic signals is detected to form data.

Inspection of structures

A method for imaging a cavitation bubble includes producing a vibratory wave that induces a cavitation bubble in a medium, producing one or more detection waves directed toward the induced cavitation bubble, receiving one or more reflection waves, identifying a change in one or more characteristics of the induced cavitation bubble, and generating an image of the induced cavitation bubble using a computing device on the basis of the identified change in the one or more characteristics. The one or more received reflection waves correspond to at least one of the one or more produced detection waves reflection from the induced cavitation bubble. The identified change in one or more characteristics corresponds to the one or more received reflection waves.

Imaging bubbles in a medium

A method and apparatus for testing a composite structure. A pulsed laser beam having a number of properties is generated. Each of the number of properties is within a selected range. The pulsed laser beam generated by the generation laser system is directed towards a composite structure comprised of a number of composite materials. A number of ultrasonic waves are formed in the composite structure when the pulsed laser beam contacts the composite structure without causing any undesired inconsistencies in the composite structure outside of selected tolerances.

System and method for testing a composite structure using a laser ultrasound testing system

Method and system for background suppression in magneto-motive photoacoustic imaging of labeled target objects.

Method and system for background suppression in magneto-motive photoacoustic imaging of magnetic contrast agents

An ultrasound system that detects a characteristic of an ultrasound wave. The system includes a circuit member defining a sensing portion operable to be exposed to the ultrasound wave. The system also includes a current generating device that generates a current in the sensing portion of the circuit member. Furthermore, the system includes a voltage sensor that detects a voltage across the sensing portion due to the exposure to the ultrasound wave to thereby detect the characteristic of the ultrasound wave.

Acoustic sensor utilizing acoustoelectric effect

An optimized elastic modulus reconstruction procedure can estimate the nonlinear elastic properties of vascular wall from intramural strain and pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurements. A noninvasive free-hand ultrasound scanning procedure is used to apply external force, comparable to the force in measuring a subject's blood pressure, to achieve higher strains by equalizing the internal arterial baseline pressure. PWV is estimated at the same location where intramural strain is measured. The reconstructed elastic modulus is optimized and the arterial elastic modulus can be determined and monitored using a simple dual elastic modulus reconstruction procedure.

Measurement of tissue elastic modulus

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Schenectady, NY, United States of America

Matthew N O'Donnell