The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 18, 1993
Filed:
Dec. 20, 1991
Martin K Mason, Andover, MA (US);
F Stuart Foster, Toronto, CA;
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
An ultrasound scanning system includes an array of transducer elements and an electrode array, movable with respect to the array to transducer elements. The electrode array is in electrical contact with transducer elements from the array of transducer elements which are immediately adjacent to the electrode array. The piezoelectric ceramic material is situated between the two-dimensional array of electrodes and the common ground electrode. Each electrode in the two-dimensional array of electrodes is electrically isolated from the other electrodes in the two-dimensional array of electrodes. The piezoelectric ceramic material may be arranged to form pillars, each pillar extending from an electrode from the two-dimensional array of electrodes to the common ground electrode. The movable electrode array is mounted on, for example, a thin Mylar membrane. The movable electrode array may be arranged in a variety of patterns. For example, the movable electrode array may be a single electrode, a plurality of annuli, a linear array or in a Fresnel pattern. Alternately, the electrode array may be mounted on a plate rotated with respect to the array of transducer elements.