Olympus Medical Systems Corporation

Olympus Corporation

Ryo Ohta

Katsuhiro Wakabayashi

Kazuya Matsumoto

Hideo Adachi

Mamoru Hasegawa

Shinji Yasunaga

Kosei Tamiya

Hiroshi Ito

Masaaki Amikura

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 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

A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (cMUT) device, comprising: a cMUT formed on a semiconductor substrate; a DC high-voltage generation unit that is provided on the semiconductor substrate and that is for generating a DC high-voltage signal to be superposed on a driving signal for the cMUT; a driving signal generation unit that is provided on the semiconductor substrate and that is for generating the driving signal; and a superposition unit that is provided on the semiconductor substrate and that is for branching the DC high-voltage signal output from the DC high-voltage generation unit and for superposing one of the branched DC high-voltage signals on the other of the branched DC high-voltage signals via the driving signal generation unit.

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (cMUT) device and method of controlling the same

An ultrasonic transducer according to the present invention includes: two or more ultrasonic transducer cells, each of which has a lower electrode, a first insulating layer placed on the lower electrode, a cavity placed on the first insulating layer, a second insulating layer placed on the cavity, and an upper electrode placed above the second insulating layer; channels which communicate the cavities with each other; the second insulating layer placed on the channels; holes formed in the second insulating layer placed on the channels; and sealing portions which seal the holes, where that part of the sealing portions which enters the channels is the same in cross-sectional shape as the holes.

Ultrasonic transducer, ultrasonic transducer fabrication method, and ultrasonic endoscope

An ultrasonic transducer cell according to the present invention includes: a substrate; a charge holding portion provided on the substrate; a lower electrode provided on the charge holding portion and used to input and output a signal; and a vibration membrane provided above the lower electrode to be separated from the lower electrode with a cavity, and configured to include at least an insulating film and an upper electrode provided on the insulating film.

Growing community of inventors

Nagano, Japan

Ryo Ohta