Mr Holdings (hk) Limited

Siemens Medical Solutions Usa, Inc.

Siemens Medical Systems, Inc.

Shenzhen Mindray Bio-medical Electronics Co., Ltd.

Xiaocong Guo

Thomas G Houck

Sevig Ayter

Gregg W Frey

Qinglin Ma

Todor Sheljaskow

Christopher S Chapman

Grazyna M Palczewska

Ron Ho

Stephen C Englund

An ultrasound transducer includes an array of PZT elements mounted on a non-recessed distal surface of a backing block. Between each element and the backing block is a conductive region formed as a portion of a metallic layer sputtered onto the distal surface. Traces on a longitudinally extending circuit board&#x2014;preferably, a substantially rigid printed circuit board, which may be embedded within the block&#x2014;connect the conductive region, and thus the PZT element, with any conventional external ultrasound imaging system. A substantially 'T' or 'inverted-L' shaped electrode is thereby formed for each element, with no need for soldering. At least one longitudinally extending metallic member mounted on a respective lateral surface of the backing block forms a heat sink and a common electrical ground. A thermally and electrically conductive layer, such as of foil, transfers heat from at least one matching layer mounted on the elements to the metallic member.

Method for manufacturing an ultrasound imaging transducer assembly

Diagnostic ultrasound transducer

A multi-dimensional transducer array has pitch along one dimension less than the pitch along a second dimension. The multi-dimensional transducer array with the same or different pitch is manufactured from a plurality of modules. Each of the modules are separately diced and then aligned and combined. Elements of a transducer array are used for isolating a transmit channel from a receive channel. Separate signal lines or traces are provided individually for each element on opposite sides of each element. A transmit channel may connect to one electrode on an element, and the receive channel may connect to an opposite electrode on the element. A multi-dimensional array is provided for time division multiplex processing. A probe houses the multi-dimensional array and a multiplexer.

Multi-dimensional transducer arrays and method of manufacture

An ultrasound transducer array ( ) in which the piezoelectric layer ( ) and the matching layer(s) ( ) have different sub-dicing. In one embodiment, the piezoelectric layer ( ) is diced only once and the matching layer(s) ( ) is diced more than once. A resulting transducer shows improved bandwidth, crosstalk and noise performance.

Method to build a high bandwidth, low crosstalk, low EM noise transducer

An ultrasonic transducer has a center row of transducers operating at a center row frequency and first and second outer rows of transducers operating at a common frequency or different frequencies lower than the center row frequency. In an enhancement of the ultrasonic transducer array, the center row of transducers has a matching layer with an acoustic velocity that is higher than matching layers that are associated with the first outer row and second outer row transducers. The matching layers can be selected such that the overall thickness of the transducer array is constant. A 1.5D ultrasonic transducer array operating at a higher center frequency and lower outer frequencies is adjustable to allow high resolution near field imaging in addition to better far field imaging without the need for a 2D transducer array.

Multifrequency ultrasonic transducer for 1.5D imaging

Growing community of inventors

Woodinville, WA, United States of America

Xiaocong Guo