Hitachi Medical Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Toshio Kondo

Hiroshi Kanda

Isao Ishikawa

Masao Kuroda

Toshio Ogawa

Yutaka Sato

Sekijyuro Ono

Yukio Ito

Kageyoshi Katakura

Kazunari Ishida

Ryuichi Shinomura

Hiroshi Takeuchi

Hifumi Tamura

Hiroshi Masuzawa

Norio Yokozawa

Koichi Yokosawa

Noriyoshi Ichikawa

Shizuo Ishikawa

Kazutaka Okada

Shuzo Sano

Mashio Kodama

Akihiro Ueyama

Takashi Ichikawa

Takaya Ohsawa

Mitsuo Fujiwara

An ultrasonic probe includes a plurality of piezoelectric elements arrayed on acoustic absorption backing material with predetermined spaces, a plurality of acoustic matching members formed on the piezoelectric elements and arrayed with gaps smaller than array gaps of the piezoelectric elements, polymer resin with which only the gaps between the piezoelectric elements are filled and having hardness lower than material of the piezoelectric elements, and an acoustic lens formed on the plurality of acoustic matching members.

Ultrasonic probe and manufacturing method thereof

A needle-like ultrasonic probe includes an inner needle received in a hollow, tubular outer needle for rotation about an axis thereof. The inner needle has a pointed distal end, and a notch is formed in an outer peripheral surface of that portion of the inner needle which is located adjacent to the distal end thereof. At least one ultrasonic transducer, as well as an acoustic lens for converging an ultrasonic wave, produced by the ultrasonic transducer, onto a point near to the outer peripheral surface of the inner needle, is provided in the notch. A filler, having an outer surface conforming to the outer peripheral surface of the inner needle, is fitted in the notch. With this construction, after the inner needle is smoothly stuck into a living tissue, even if it is rotated and axially moved, the living tissue is less affected or damaged by the inner needle.

Needle-like ultrasonic probe for ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus, method

This invention provides a delay circuit capable of electrically varying the delay amount comprising a first transistor for receiving a signal to be delayed from the base connected to an input terminal and outputting a positive phase signal and a negative phase signal with respect to the signal from the input terminal, respectively from the emitter and the collector thereof; two variable capacity diodes with their terminals of the same polarity connected together and a specified control voltage applied to the point of said connection, one end of the connected diodes being connected to the emitter of said first transistor; a second transistor with the base grounded, the emitter connected to the collector of the above-mentioned first transistor, and the collector connected to one end of a specified resistance; and a delayed signal output terminal having connected thereto the other end of the two variable capacity diodes and the other end of the specified resistance. According to this invention, an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus using this delay circuit is also provided.

Electrically adjustable delay circuit and ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus

A delay circuit of ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising a delay line consisting of a plurality of unit portions connected in cascade, in each of which an anode of a first variable capacitance diode and a cathode of a second variable capacitance diode are connected with a connecting point of two inductors connected in series, or a delay line obtained by replacing capacitances in a second order all pass type delay line by variable capacitance diodes, or a delay line, in which variable capacitance diodes and inductors form a balanced circuit; and control circuit for applying a reverse bias voltage to each of the variable capacitance diodes; and an amplifier or a variable resistance circuit using FETs serving as a matching circuit for the delay line, capable of varying continuously an input impedance by using a control voltage from the exterior.

Delay circuit of ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using delay line

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus which has a probe including a plurality of transducer elements made of an electrostrictive material arranged on a plane in two-dimensional directions, a bias applying unit for selecting the transducer elements in an arbitrary row in the horizontal direction to be in an operative condition by applying the same with a bias voltage, and a switching unit for selecting the transducer elements in at least one arbitrary column in the vertical direction by applying the same with a bias voltage, and controls the bias voltage applying unit and the switching unit to scan an ultrasonic beam in the two-dimensional directions to collect three-dimensional information on a body under inspection.

Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprises a probe for transmitting an ultrasonic beam toward a body having a blood vessel therein and a plurality of receiver circuits corresponding to sampling points of the body in a direction approximately perpendicular to the beam to produce respective intensities of reflected waves from the sampling points. A distribution of the reflected-wave intensities from the receiver circuits is measured at a predetermined interval of time. A shift between two successive intensity distributions thus measured is detected by a correlator, thereby determining a blood flow speed, in the blood vessel of the body, in the direction approximately perpendicular to the beam.

Apparatus for measuring blood flow speed using an ultrasonic beam

A probe for use in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus in which the acoustic impedance of a liquid medium put between the oscillator and the living body is made equal to that of the casing having the medium sealed therein, by using a low molecular weight polymer product of chlorotrifluoroethylene as the liquid medium. This can suppress the multi-reflection echoes within the casing to thereby improve the quality of the tomographic images obtained by the apparatus.

Ultrasonic probe

In the scanning type ultrasonic equipment provided with a probe a plurality of transducer elements and with a phasing circuit for signals which are delivered from the transducer elements on the basis of a received ultrasonic wave, the phasing circuit includes constant current circuits each for converting selected ones of the signals from the transducer elements into a constant current signal, and a delay line having taps which are connected to the constant current circuits, in order to reduce the number of parts included in the phasing circuit and the number of adjusting operations performed therein.

Phasing circuit for use in a scanning type ultrasonic equipment

A multielement acoustic transducer comprising a metal plating which is formed by plating the convex surface of a low-melting metal having a plurality of convex semispherical holes and then fusing and removing the low-melting metal, the metal plating being used as a base electrode, a piezoelectric material which is formed on the base electrode, and a top electrode which is formed on the piezoelectric material, the piezoelectric material functioning as concave transducer elements.

Multielement acoustic transducer as well as a method of manufacturing

An acoustic spherical lens where in a hemispherical hole is formed from a bubble which appears owing to the expansion of residual gases in a lens material employing silica, and the hemispherical hole is used as a lens surface.

Method of manufacturing an acoustic spherical lens

In an acoustic microscope wherein a piezoelectric transducer disposed on one face of an ultrasonic wave focusing lens radiates an ultrasonic wave into the lens and also converts into an electric signal a reflected wave from a specimen arranged on the side of the other face of the lens, a reflected wave from the interface of the lens and the reflected wave from the specimen are caused to interfere with each other.

Acoustic microscope

An ultrasonic imaging equipment employing a transducer which includes an acoustic propagating medium formed with a concave surface at one end thereof and formed with a piezoelectric thin film on the other end thereof opposing to the one end, and a medium arranged in the concave surface in order to permit the concave surface to effect a lens action, and a dummy transducer which eliminates a transmitted echo and an echo from the lens boundary and which is constructed of the acoustic propagating medium and an acoustic absorber.

Ultrasonic imaging equipment

An acoustic spherical lens wherein a hemispherical hole is formed from a bubble which appears owing to the expansion of resudual gases in a lens material employing silica, and the hemispherical hole is used as a lens surface.

Piezoelectric acoustic transducer with spherical lens

A circuit for exciting an ultrasonic transducer element comprises a diode switch exhibiting a long reverse recovery time duration connected between an input and an output terminal. A transducer exciting signal varying in both positive and negative directions and applied to the input terminal is conducted to the output terminal through the diode switch.

Switch circuit for exciting ultrasonic transducer elements

In an ultrasonic imaging system including an array of ultrasonic oscillators, ultrasonic beams are electronically scanned by sequentially selecting a plurality of oscillator sets for beam transmission and reception. For one transmission of ultrasonic waves, at least two receiver oscillator sets having at least some oscillators in common are simultaneously selected, and the respective outputs from the oscillators in the at least two receiver oscillator sets are phase-adjusted so that echoes received by the at least two receiver oscillator sets effectively correspond to echoes substantially emanating from at least two respective different points on a depth level distanced from the plane of the oscillator array by a predetermined depth, whereby at least two signals and hence at least two successive scan lines relating to the echoes from those respective different points are produced. As a result, improved line resolution and rapid line acquisition can be obtained.

Growing community of inventors

Kunitachi, Japan

Toshio Kondo