Exo Imaging, Inc.

Crest Semiconductors, Inc.

Maxim Integrated Products, Inc.

General Electric Company

Siflare, Inc.

Yusuf Haque

Sandeep Akkaraju

Janusz Bryzek

Ryan James Kier

Rex K Hales

Brian Lee Bircumshaw

Tracy L Johancsik

Donald E Lewis

Marcellus Harper

Paul Talmage Watkins

Joe Adam

Haesung Kwon

Kevin Kennedy Johnstone

Larry Skrenes

Liang Wang

Benjamin J McCarroll

Lawrence Richard Skrenes

Miles N Wernick

Scott A Bielski

Ramesh Kumar Singh

Mark Albert Pinchback

Drake Guenther

William Picken

Andalib Chowdhury

Kutay Ustuner

An imaging device includes a two dimensional array of piezoelectric elements. Each piezoelectric element includes: a piezoelectric layer; a bottom electrode disposed on a bottom side of the piezoelectric layer and configured to receive a transmit signal during a transmit mode and develop an electrical charge during a receive mode; and a first top electrode disposed on a top side of the piezoelectric layer; and a first conductor, wherein the first top electrodes of a portion of the piezoelectric elements in a first column of the two dimensional array are electrically coupled to the first conductor.

Configurable ultrasonic imager

In one example in accordance with the present disclosure, an imaging device is described. The imaging device includes an array of transducers. Each transducer includes an array of piezoelectric elements. Each piezoelectric element transmits pressure waves towards an object to be imaged and receives reflections of the pressure waves off the object to be imaged. The imaging device also includes a transmit channel per one or more piezoelectric elements to generate the pressure waves and a receive channel per one or more piezoelectric elements to process the reflections of the pressure waves. The number of channels are selectively altered to control parameters such as power consumption and temperature.

Imaging devices with selectively alterable characteristics

Described are transducer assemblies and imaging devices comprising: a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) die including a plurality of piezoelectric elements; a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) die electrically coupled to the MEMS die by a first plurality of bumps and including at least one circuit for controlling the plurality of piezoelectric elements; and a package secured to the CMOS die by an adhesive layer and electrically connected to the CMOS die.

Integrated ultrasonic transducers

An ultrasound device for use with various types of imaging. In some embodiments, the ultrasound device may comprise a circuitry substrate and a plurality of transducer chips coupled to the circuitry substrate. In some embodiments, each transducer chip may comprise a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) component that may include a plurality of ultrasound elements closely packed with one another, an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) that may be operatively coupled to the plurality of ultrasound elements of said MEMS component, and a control unit that may be electrically coupled to each ASIC of the plurality of transducer chips for control thereof. In some embodiments, at least two transducer chips of the plurality of transducer chips may be placed on the circuitry substrate with a separation distance that may be less than an operational wavelength of the ultrasound elements of the MEMS components of said at least two transducer chips.

Multi-transducer chip ultrasound device

Disclosed herein are computer-implemented medical ultrasound imaging methods, and systems for performing the methods, that comprise forming a first frame of an ultrasound image sequence with high image quality; forming at least one frame of the ultrasound image sequence with reduced image quality; forming a second frame of the ultrasound image sequence with high image quality; and improving the quality of the at least one frame of the ultrasound image sequence with reduced image quality using the first and/or the second frames of the ultrasound image sequence with high quality. In some cases, the improvement of the quality of the at least one frame of the ultrasound image sequence with reduced image quality is achieved by application of machine learning.

Methods to maintain image quality in ultrasound imaging at reduced cost, size, and power

An imaging device includes a transducer that includes an array of piezoelectric elements formed on a substrate. Each piezoelectric element includes at least one membrane suspended from the substrate, at least one bottom electrode disposed on the membrane, at least one piezoelectric layer disposed on the bottom electrode, and at least one top electrode disposed on the at least one piezoelectric layer. Adjacent piezoelectric elements are configured to be isolated acoustically from each other. The device is utilized to measure flow or flow along with imaging anatomy.

Ultrasonic imaging device with programmable anatomy and flow imaging

An imaging system includes: a transceiver cell for generating a pressure wave and converting an external pressure wave into an electrical signal; and a control unit for controlling an operation of the transceiver cell. The transceiver cell includes: a substrate; at least one membrane suspending from the substrate; and a plurality of transducer elements mounted on the at least one membrane. Each of the plurality of transducer elements has a bottom electrode, a piezoelectric layer on bottom electrode, and at least one top electrode on the piezoelectric layer. Each of the plurality of transducer element generates a bending moment in response to applying an electrical potential across the bottom electrode and the at least one top electrode and develops an electrical charge in response to a bending moment due to the external pressure wave.

Imaging devices having piezoelectric transducers

Disclosed herein are ultrasonic transducer systems comprising: an ultrasonic imager comprising a plurality of pMUT transducer elements; and one or more circuitries connected electronically to the plurality of transducer element, the one or more circuitries configured to enable: pulse transmission and reception of reflected signal for the ultrasonic transducer, where inductors are used to equalize impedance to obtain greater pressure output. Also disclosed are methods of altering a pressure of an ultrasonic wave emitted by an ultrasonic transducer.

Equalization for matrix based line imagers for ultrasound imaging systems

A transceiver includes an array of pMUT elements, where each pMUT element includes: a substrate; a membrane suspending from the substrate; a bottom electrode disposed on the membrane; a piezoelectric layer disposed on the bottom electrode; and a first electrode disposed on the piezoelectric layer. Each pMUT element exhibits one or more modes of vibration.

Low voltage, low power MEMS transducer with direct interconnect capability

Growing community of inventors

Woodside, CA, United States of America

Yusuf Haque