Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Nippon Oil Company

Shiroh Saitoh

Mamoru Izumi

Yohachi Yamashita

Shinichi Hashimoto

Senji Shimanuki

Tsuyoshi Kobayashi

Satoshi Aida

Chiaki Tanuma

Katsuhiko Fujimoto

Kazuya Okamoto

Kouichi Harada

Takuji Suzuki

Isao Amemiya

Mariko Shibata

Yoshiharu Ishibashi

Syuzi Suzuki

Noriko Yamamoto

Satoshi Takayama

Kazuhiro Itsumi

Shunji Shirouzu

Masayuki Shiratori

Yujiro Naruse

Hiroki Honda

Tatsuro Beppu

Nagao Kaneko

Masaru Kawachi

Noriko Y Kudo

Shigeki Obata

Tetsuro Itakura

Kazuhide Abe

Yoshitaka Mine

Hitoshi Nagato

Shuzo Hirahara

Hideki Nukada

Masao Koyama

Hideo Hayashi

Makoto Hirama

Yoichi Tokai

Tutomu Saito

Hitoshi Yagi

Hisatake Sato

Shunsuke Hattori

Hisako Tanaka

Moriyasu Wada

Kumi Okuwada

Masami Sugiuchi

Hiroyuki Tsujino

Fumihiko Murakami

Nanao Nakamura

Michihiro Mohri

Hitashi Yagi

Atsuko Nakamura

Seizaburou Shimizu

Akio Miyahara

A method of manufacturing an ultrasonic probe includes the steps of forming electrodes on two surfaces of a piezoelectric single crystal made of a complex perovskite compound and then adhering the piezoelectric single crystal on a backing material, dicing the piezoelectric single crystal to form an arrayed piezoelectric single-crystal transducer, and poling the arrayed piezoelectric single-crystal transducer in the electric field of 0.5 to 2 kV/mm at a temperature of 80&deg; C. or less.

Method of manufacturing ultrasonic probe and ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

An ultrasonic probe has strip-formed oscillators formed of a piezoelectric crystal material arranged in an array form. Metal layers are formed by a first layer of at least one of Ti, Ni and Cr, a second layer of at least one of Cu and Ni, and a third layer of at least one of Cu, Au, Pt, Ag and Pd. A backing material is fixed to the oscillators through the metal layers. With this structure, it is possible to manufacture an ultrasonic probe having a high sensitivity while maintaining a favorable dicing process, even while using a backing material having a low acoustic impedance and soft properties.

Ultrasonic probe and ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

An ink jet recording apparatus uses supersonic waves focused on an ink holding container to inject ink from the ink surface onto a recording medium. A piezoelectric element driven by a first driving signal serves as the supersonic wave generator. The piezoelectric element can also be driven by a second driving signal to effectively circulate the ink in the holding container. The second driving signal results in an acoustic pressure at the ink surface lower than the acoustic pressure necessary for injecting the ink onto a recording medium.

Supersonic wave, ink jet recording apparatus including ink circulation

An ink-jet recording apparatus records an image onto a recording medium by flying an ink-droplet from an ink surface by a pressure of an ultrasonic beam. The apparatus including an ultrasonic generating element array having a plurality of ultrasonic elements arranged in an array for emitting ultrasonic beams, a driving device for applying a plurality of pulses having different phases from each other, and a converging device for converging the ultrasonic beams by interfering the ultrasonic beams with each other. The generating elements are simultaneously driven and sequentially shifted in an array direction, and the converging device converging the ultrasonic beams in a direction perpendicular to the array direction.

Ink-jet recording device having an ultrasonic generating element array

An ink jet recording apparatus includes an ink holding chamber, an ultrasonic wave generator having a piezoelectric transducer structure consisting of a piezoelectric member, and first and second electrodes formed on opposing surfaces of the piezoelectric member, and a driver for driving the piezoelectric transducer structure. The piezoelectric transducer structure is coupled acoustically with the ink liquid. The apparatus further includes ultrasonic wave focusing member formed on the ultrasonic wave generator and including an acoustic lens for focusing an ultrasonic wave generated from the ultrasonic wave generator in a vicinity close to a surface of the ink liquid, and a supporting member for supporting the ultrasonic wave generator on an opposite side to the ultrasonic wave focusing member. The supporting member supports the ultrasonic wave generator via an ultrasonic wave canceling medium, in a region corresponding to an overlapping region between the piezoelectric transducer structure and the acoustic lens.

Ink jet recording apparatus

An ultrasonic probe provided with an ultrasonic wave-transmitting/receiving element comprising a 1-3 type or 2-2 type composite piezoelectric body exposing a piezoelectric monocrystal from at least one of the faces of the composite piezoelectric body, and an electrode mounted on at least one of the faces of the composite piezoelectric body, wherein the composite piezoelectric body comprises a piezoelectric monocrystal whose electromechanical coupling coefficient ratio k.sub.33 /k.sub.t is 1.6 or more, and a resin whose acoustic impedance Zp is 4.times.10.sup.6 kg/m.sup.2 s or less.

Ultrasonic probe

A driving circuit controls a time for applying a drive signal to a piezoelectric element so as to bring a control in the number of ink droplets squirted from a liquid surface of liquid ink according to a gray scale level of an image to be printed on a printed object. According to application of the drive signal, acoustic waves emitted from a piezoelectric element array are focused in a main scanning direction, made incident to an acoustic lens via an acoustic matching layer, further focused in a direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction and focused in a vicinity of the liquid surface in a point form. In the vicinity of the liquid surface, an ink liquid mound is formed by means of pressure (discharging pressure) generated by the focused acoustic waves and then from a tip of the ink liquid mound an ink droplet according to the application time is squirted. The squirted ink droplet is ejected and stuck to the printed object. By performing main and subscanning to the printed object, a two-dimensional image is printed thereon.

Ink-jet printer using RF tone burst drive signal

A device for performing identification by sensing the fingerprint of a finger includes an input unit. The input unit is constituted by a plurality of linear contact electrodes formed on a substrate, and a pressure-sensitive sheet formed on the linear contact electrodes and a resistance thereof changes in accordance with a pressure applied thereto. When the finger touches the surface of the pressure-sensitive sheet, a change in resistance is caused between the electrodes, and this change is converted to data of a one-dimensional electrical signal distribution. The obtained data is compared with registered data, thereby performing identification. The time required for signal processing necessary in the identification device can be decreased.

Surface shape sensor, identification device using this sensor, and

Provided is a diagnostic ultrasound system producing an image whose brightness is enhanced by a contrast medium by implementing contrast echography based on intravenous injection. A diagnostic ultrasound system comprises a probe for converting an electrical driving signal into a corresponding transmission ultrasound wave and converting an echoed ultrasound wave into a corresponding electrical echo signal. The system still comprises a unit for transmitting the transmission ultrasonic wave to a subject by providing the probe the electrical driving signal substantially consisting of a fundamental component of a given driving frequency. The non-fundamental component is typically a second harmonic. A non-fundamental component of the driving frequency is intentionally lowered in power relative to the fundamental component by a suppressing element in the transmitting unit. The system comprises a unit for receiving the echo signal from the probe and processing the echo signal into a display image data reflecting both the fundamental and non-fundamental components and a unit for displaying the display image data.

Ultrasound imaging preferable to ultrasound contrast echography

An ultrasound medical treatment apparatus includes an ultrasound applicator for applying ultrasound irradiation to a treatment target. The treatment apparatus also includes an ultrasound imaging device that transmits ultrasound pulses to image the treatment target. The treatment apparatus is capable of reducing noises occurring at an ultrasound imaging device due to the ultrasound irradiation generated by the ultrasound application during ultrasound medical treatment. The noises may be reduced by increasing a transmission power of the ultrasound pulses. Alternatively, the noises may be reduced by subtracting pre-recorded noise components from the ultrasound pulses received by the ultrasound imaging device, where the pre-recorded noise components are characteristic of noise occurring at the ultrasound imaging device due to the ultrasound irradiation generated by the ultrasound applicator.

Ultrasound medical treatment apparatus with reduction of noise due to

An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for raising tissue temperature for hypothermic treatments, including an ultrasonic source for generating an ultrasonic treatment wave and a driving means for driving the ultrasonic source such that a frequency of the ultrasonic treatment wave generated by the ultrasonic source changes with time. The frequency of the ultrasonic treatment wave is changed along the time axis. By this change in frequency, some bubbles formed by cavitation as a result of the ultrasonic treatment wave are divided, and some bubbles are collapsed and therefore eliminated. Side effect cavitation and spread of a thermal degeneration area is suppressed, and thermal degeneration can be accurately induced in a desired area, thereby realizing a reliable, safe ultrasonic thermotherapy. Since cavitation is positively suppressed, the total treatment period can be shortened because cavitation would otherwise interfere with and slow down the thermal degeneration process. Therefore, treatment throughput can be improved as compared with a case in which cavitation is left to naturally break and disappear.

Ultrasonic apparatus for thermotherapy with variable frequency for

An ultrasound medical treatment system capable of determining the hot spot at high spatial resolution, and preventing the displacement of the hot spot from the focal point. In the system, the imaging device for obtaining image data of a treatment portion containing a treatment target and an irradiation device for applying radiation onto the treatment target are controlled in such a manner that the imaging device is controlled to obtain hot spot detection image data after the irradiation device is controlled to apply radiation at a prescribed level, so that a hot spot indicating a change due to a temperature change caused by the radiation at the prescribed level can be detected from the hot spot detection image data. The irradiation device is then controlled to apply a treatment radiation at a treatment level higher than the prescribed level according to the detected hot spot.

Method and apparatus for ultrasound medical treatment

A piezoelectric material with a high fracture toughness and a large electromechanical coupling coefficient is disclosed. This piezoelectric material contains a composition which is represented by xPb(Sc.sub.1/2 Nb.sub.1/2)O.sub.3 -yPbTiO.sub.3 -zPbZrO.sub.3 -wPb(Me.sub.1/3 Nb.sub.2/3)O.sub.3, where Me is at least one metal selected from the group consisting of Mg, Zn and Ni, and x+y+z+w=1.00, x, y, z, and w being values falling within region which is defined by connecting points a, b, c, and d and which excludes a line ab, the points a, b, c, and d existing on the faces of a regular trigonal pyramid having apices P.sub.1, P.sub.2, P.sub.3, and P.sub.4 which correspond to Pb(Sc.sub.1/2 Nb.sub.1/2)O.sub.3, PbTiO.sub.3, PbZrO.sub.3 and Pb(Me.sub.1/3 Nb.sub.2/3)O.sub.3, respectively, and the points a, b, c, and d having the following coordinate values when the apices P.sub.1, P.sub.2, P.sub.3, and P.sub.4 have coordinate values of (X.sub.1, Y.sub.1, Z.sub.1, W.sub.1 =1, 0, 0, 0), (X.sub.2, Y.sub.2, Z.sub.2, W.sub.2 =0, 1, 0, 0, 0), (X.sub.3, Y.sub.3, Z.sub.3, W.sub.3 =0, 0, 1, 0), and (X.sub.4, Y.sub.4, Z.sub.4, W.sub.4 =0, 0, 0, 1):

Piezoelectric material and ultrasonic probe

Disclosed is a piezoelectric single crystal which has a large electromechanical coupling coefficient and hardly brings about depolarization due to the effect of heat in, e.g., the steps of manufacturing an ultrasonic transmitting/receiving element. The piezoelectric single crystal consists essentially of a general formula:

Piezoelectric single crystal, ultrasonic probe, and array-type

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Kawasaki, Japan

Shiroh Saitoh