Olympus Corporation

Olympus Medical Systems Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Takuya Imahashi

Katsuhiro Wakabayashi

Yukihiko Sawada

Akiko Mizunuma

Sunao Sato

Hideo Adachi

Miyuki Murakami

Kiyoshi Nemoto

Shuji Otani

Kozaburo Suzuki

Naomi Shimoda

Takanao Fujimura

Tomoki Funakubo

Masayoshi Omura

Satoshi Yoshida

Kenichi Nishina

Yoshiyuki Okuno

Hironaka Miyaki

Masahiko Komuro

Kei Irie

Yukihiko Shimamura

Hidemichi Aoki

Etsuko Omura

Ki Doh

Etsuko Omura, Legal Representative

Sayuri Sato

Yoshiyjki Okuno

Kozue Kurihara

Mizunuma Akiko

An ultrasound endoscope includes: an insertion portion to be inserted into a subject; an ultrasound transducer that is provided at a distal end of the insertion portion and includes plural piezoelectric element groups configured to transmit and receive ultrasound; a connector portion that is provided on a proximal end side of the insertion portion and includes plural connectors to which an external device is connected; and a cable portion including plural first coaxial lines connected to the piezoelectric element groups configured to transmit the ultrasound to a first area, and plural second coaxial lines connected to the piezoelectric element groups configured to transmit the ultrasound to a second area, the first coaxial lines being shorter in length than the second coaxial lines, the first area and the second area being where the ultrasound is transmitted.

Ultrasound endoscope

A method for manufacturing an ultrasound transducer includes a first step of manufacturing a wiring layer by arranging insulating fibers on conductive threads, a second step of electrically connecting one end of the plurality of conductive threads to a transducer array unit, a third step of providing a first backing material after providing a second backing material so that at least connection sites between the transducer array unit and the conductive threads are embedded, and a fourth step of curing the first backing material so as to fix the transducer array unit and the wiring layer.

Method for manufacturing ultrasound transducer

An ultrasound endoscope according to the invention includes: an ultrasound transducer that transmits/receives ultrasound; a housing in which the ultrasound transducer is fixed via an adhesive, and which houses the ultrasound transducer; an inner peripheral face forming a rectangular first opening portion for exposing the ultrasound transducer, the first opening portion being formed in the housing; an acoustic lens forming a part from an upper face to at least a side face of the ultrasound transducer; and a chamfered portion provided at a side face of the acoustic lens, an adhesive outlet port for the adhesive to flow to an outside from the first opening portion being formed between the chamfered portion and the inner peripheral face.

In a distal end portion of a flexible sheath which is inserted integrally with an ultrasound transducer array, cell collecting hole portions each including a through-hole which allows a distal end portion outer periphery and an internal space of the flexible sheath to communicate with each other is provided, an edge for specimen cutting is formed at an opening portion of an outer circumferential side of each of the cell collecting hole portions, and after the flexible sheath is caused to reach a lesion part or the like of a subject, specimen collection is performed without additionally inserting a biological forceps or the like into the flexible sheath, whereby a specimen of a target site such as a lesion part is reliably collected without unnecessarily increasing the number of times of insertion and extraction of an instrument into and from a body, and the burden on an examinee is reduced.

Specimen collection treatment instrument

It becomes possible to obtain high sound pressure in a high frequency domain by a capacitive ultrasonic transducer which comprises a membrane on which one electrode is formed, a cavity constructed in its backface, and a substrate on which these are mounted and supported and on whose surface an electrode is provided, on a surface in an ultrasonic transmission and reception side, characterized in that the membrane comprises tow or more layers, and at least one layer of them comprises a high dielectric constant film.

Capacitive ultrasonic transducer, production method thereof, and capacitive ultrasonic probe

An ultrasound endoscope has an ultrasound probe which is disposed at a distal end side of a distal end rigid portion configuring a distal end portion out of a flexible tube portion, a bending portion and the distal end rigid portion configuring an insertion portion, and forms an ultrasound scanning surface having a normal line in a direction orthogonal to an endoscope insertion axis L, and a treatment instrument outlet of a treatment hole in the distal end rigid portion. The ultrasound probe is configured by a plurality of ultrasound transducers arranged in a convex circular arc shape, and a center of curvature of the plurality of ultrasound transducers is disposed at a proximal end side from the treatment instrument outlet.

An electronic radial ultrasonic probe comprising an electronic radial array which comprises a plurality of ultrasonic transducers being continuously arrayed circularly around an insertion axis as center and also for which a transmission/reception of an ultrasonic wave is controlled by electronically selecting the plurality of ultrasonic transducer, comprises: a support member equipped on the electronic radial array; a lock member featured with a cavity in which the support member is inserted and with a lock groove for locking a balloon which is mounted in a manner to cover the electronic radial array and in which an ultrasonic medium is filled; and a filler member which is constituted by an adhesive material converting from a fluid state to a solid state, and is filled in the cavity.

Ultrasonic probe

The present invention provides an ultrasonic endoscope, comprising: an ultrasonic transducer in a cylindrical shape including a plurality of piezoelectric devices, an acoustic matching layer stacked on a principal plane on a sound emitting plane side, an acoustic lens on a plane of the acoustic matching layer opposite to a plane facing the piezoelectric devices, and a backing material stacked on another principal planes of the piezoelectric devices; an endoscopic observation and endo-therapy unit provided, for performing endoscopic image observation, at a proximal end side of the ultrasonic transducer; a cable assembly including a plurality of cables for transmitting signals to and from the ultrasonic transducer. In the above configuration, the cable assembly is arranged in such a manner that the cable assembly passes through an inside portion of the ultrasonic transducer, and is connected to the ultrasonic transducer at a distal end side of the ultrasonic transducer. Thereby, an ultrasonic endoscope is provided that has an ultrasonic transducer in which the ultrasonic transducer and coaxial cables will not be disconnected even under thermal or mechanical loads.

Ultrasonic endoscope

An ultrasonic transducer arraying at even intervals ultrasonic transducers for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves and layering a plurality of acoustic matching layers on them, comprising an transducer shape forming member made of a fiber-reinforced thermosetting PPE for filling a gap formed on the side face of the ultrasonic transducer with the same material as that of the acoustic matching layer, mixing a colorant in a division member adjacent to a predefined ultrasonic transducer from among a plurality of ultrasonic transducers, and arraying the plurality thereof.

Ultrasonic transducer, ultrasonic transducer array and ultrasound endoscope apparatus

An ultrasound transducer manufactured by using a micromachining process comprises: a first electrode into which a control signal for transmitting ultrasound is input; a substrate on which the first electrode is formed; a second electrode that is a ground electrode facing the first electrode with a prescribed space between the first and second electrodes; a membrane on which the second electrode is formed and which vibrates and generates the ultrasound when a voltage is applied between the first and second electrodes; a piezoelectric film contacting the membrane; and a third electrode electrically continuous to the piezoelectric film.

Ultrasound transducer manufactured by using micromachining process, its device, endoscopic ultrasound diagnosis system thereof, and method for controlling the same

Within the tip portion of a cylindrical shaped sheath a capacitive ultrasonic transducer which is an array type two-dimensionally arrayed on the outer surface of the cylindrical face is disposed. Capacitive ultrasonic transducer units employ m capacitive ultrasonic transducer elements arrayed in the longitudinal direction of the cylindrical face as a division unit, thereby providing an arrangement wherein the respective capacitive ultrasonic transducer units are readily disposed in the circumferential direction, whereby radial scanning or the like can be performed within a body cavity.

Capacitive ultrasonic probe device

An ultrasonic probe apparatus which applies a RF pulse signal with a DC bias signal superimposed thereon to c-MUTs and transmits/receives an ultrasound wave is configured such that a transmission control system includes bias regulators which regulate the voltage value of the DC bias signal, a reception control system has a plurality of different frequency band pass filtering characteristics including at least those for a low pass and high pass and a frequency band pass filtering processing section which can select at least one frequency band pass filtering characteristic from those frequency band pass filtering characteristics. The apparatus controls voltage settings of the bias regulators in conjunction with the selection of frequency band pass filtering characteristics of the frequency band pass filtering processing section.

Ultrasonic probe apparatus and ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer having an ultrasonic wave transmission/reception surface formed by arranging a plurality of transducer cells each of which includes a membrane having a first electrode and a supporting film for supporting the first electrode, and also includes a second electrode arranged being opposite to the first electrode and being spaced apart from the first electrode at a prescribed interval, wherein: the transducer cells are arranged on the basis of resonant frequencies of the transducer cells.

Growing community of inventors

Kawasaki, Japan

Takuya Imahashi