Raytheon Company

Roger H Tancrell

David T Wilson

Joseph Callerame

William W Stoner

A composite sensor includes at least one layer comprising a piezoelectric material such as a molecularly poled polymer material or a ceramic material having disposed therebetween a material which enhances the piezoelectric properties of the piezoelectric material. One pair of edges of said composite sensor are constrained from expanding in response to a force applied to the sensor.

Low cost composite transducer

A transducer having an energy conversion medium for converting changes in applied mechanical energy into corresponding changes in thermal energy and a pyroelectric material in thermal energy transfer relationship with the energy conversion medium for producing an electrical output substantially in response to the converted thermal energy. Such transducer is particularly useful as a hydrophone in detecting low frequency sound waves emitted by, or reflected from, underwater objects.

Transducer

A sheet of polymer material is secured between a pair of clamp members. The sheet is directed through a localized heated region to provide a localized heated portion of said sheet. A first one of said clamp members is pulled away from a second fixed clamp member to stretch said sheet providing a pair of neckdown region portions and a reduced thickness portion or stretched portion of the sheet. One of the neckdown regions propagates along unstretched portions of the sheet as the clamp member moves away from the fixed clamp member. The propagating neckdown region is kept within the localized heated region by moving the localized heated region and an electric field is applied to the propagating neckdown region portion to polarize the sheet.

Method of stretching and polarizing polymer materials

A sheet of polymer material is secured between a pair of clamping members. The sheet is directed through a localized heated region to provide a localized heated portion of said sheet. A first one of said clamping members is pulled away from the second clamping members to stretch said sheet and create from the localized heated portion of said sheet a neck-down region. The neck-down region separates providing a pair of neck-down region portions and a reduced thickness portion or stretched portion of the sheet between said neck-down region portions. One of said neck-down regions propagates along unstretched portions of the sheet as the movable clamping member moves away from the fixed clamping member while the other neck-down region remains adjacent the fixed member. This propagating neck-down region portion of the sheet is kept within the localized heated region by moving the localized heated region at a rate related to the rate which unstretched material of the sheet is fed into the neck-down region portion. While the neck-down region portion is maintained within the localized heated region, an electric field is applied to the neck-down region portion to polarize the film.

Sheets of stretched and polarized polymer materials and method of

An imaging system, particularly useful for acoustic medical diagonsis of a human subject, utilizes an array of radiating elements or sonic transducers located side-by-side and positioned along the subject. Signals received by the transducer are applied to a pair of pattern generation circuits which weight the individual signals by factors of +1, -1 or 0. Graphs of the weighting factors as a function of transducer location have the likeness of cosinusoidal and sinusoidal Fresnel patterns, these patterns being produced by the two circuits. Upon reception of signals, the weighted signals of each pattern are summed together, multiplied by cosinusoidal and sinusoidal reference signals and then summed together to provide a radiation pattern which converges from the array to a focal point in front of the array while eliminating a diverging pattern from a virtual focus behind the array. For transmission, sinusoidal and cosinusoidal signals are weighted by the Fresnel factors, summed together and applied to the transducers.

Fresnel focussed imaging system

A probe detects sonic energy in liquids and in materials containing liquids such as the flesh of living beings, the probe being particularly adapted for medical ultrasonics. The probe is constructed of materials having acoustic impedances substantially equal to that of water to maximize the transfer of sonic energy in a living being to an electric signal within the probe for accurate detection of high frequency pulses having a duration less than a microsecond. A piezoelectric polymer serves as the transducer and is mounted at the end of the probe housing between a thin metallic window which serves as one electrode, and a metallized rubber rod which serves as the second electrode and sonically insulates the transducer from the housing. An acoustically absorbent ring affixed to the perimeter of the face of the probe, and a flaring of the back end of the probe, reduce the diffraction and reflection of acoustic waves for improved accuracy in the measurement of submicrosecond pulses.

Polymeric piezoelectric microprobe with damper

An imaging system, particularly useful for acoustic medical diagnosis of a human subject, utilizes an array of radiating elements or sonic transducers located side-by-side and positioned along the subject. Signals received by the transducer are applied to a pair of pattern generation circuits which weight the individual signals by factors of +1, -1 or 0. Graphs of the weighting factors as a function of transducer location have the likeness of cosinusoidal and sinusoidal Fresnel patterns, these patterns being produced by the two circuits. Upon reception of signals, the weighted signals of each pattern are summed together, multiplied by cosinusoidal and sinusoidal reference signals and then summed together to provide a radiation pattern which converges from the array to a focal point in front of the array while eliminating a diverging pattern from a virtual focus behind the array. For transmission, sinusoidal and cosinusoidal signals are weighted by the Fresnel factors, summed together and applied to the transducers.

An imaging system, particularly useful for acoustic medical diagnosis of a human subject, utilizes an array of radiating elements or sonic transducers located side-by-side and positioned along the subject. Signals received by the transducer are applied to a pair of pattern generation circuits which weight the individual signals by factors of +1, -1 or 0. Graphs of the weighting factors as a function of transducer location have the likeness of cosinusoidal and sinusoidal Fresnel patterns, these patterns being produced by the two circuits. The weighted signals of each pattern are summed together, multiplied by cosinusoidal and sinusoidal reference signals and then summed together to provide a radiation pattern which converges from the array to a focal point in front of the array while eliminating a diverging pattern from a virtual focus behind the array.

An imaging system utilizing a scintillation camera for photographing subjects emitting gamma and X-radiation. Masks are sequentially positioned between the subject and the camera to produce a sequence of shadowgrams upon the face of the camera. Output signals of the camera are summed together to give an array of sum signals, the array of sum signals being Fourier transformed followed by a matched filtering by multiplication of the frequency terms by an array of factors utilized in generating the masks. Phase factors are applied to the camera output signals, either before the Fourier transformation or during the matched filtering, the phase factors identifying the masks utilized in producing the respective shadowgrams. An inverse Fourier transformation then results in an image of the subject.

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Roger H Tancrell