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:
Feb. 06, 1996
Filed:
Oct. 21, 1993
J Fleming Dias, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Hewlett Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
This invention is a magnetostriction transducer and an intraoperative probe for acoustic imaging. The magnetostriction transducer has a coil and a magnetostriction element deposited on a portion of the acoustic waveguide that is inserted inside the coil. The magnetic field of the coil threads into the magnetostriction element and, due to the alternating magnetic field, the magnetostriction element changes its length at a rate equal to the frequency of the magnetic field. These length changes excite, among others, longitudinal waves in the core of the acoustic waveguide. The intraoperative probe has an array of acoustic waveguides bonded together. Each acoustic waveguide in the intraoperative probe has a transducer, such as a magnetostriction transducer of a piezoelectric transducer, that couples acoustic signals into the acoustic waveguides. The intraoperative probe can image the body without the extra hardware needed to rotate an acoustic waveguide by stepping an acoustic beam across the aperture of the intraoperative probe. This invention has the advantage of imaging internal organs without exposing them to danger of leakage currents.