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:
Mar. 12, 1996
Filed:
Dec. 22, 1994
Subramaniam Venkataramani, Clifton Park, NY (US);
Robert F Kwasnick, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Peter W Lorraine, Niskayuna, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY (US);
Abstract
A high yield method of fabricating an ultrasound array having densely packed ultrasound elements with smooth surface finishes includes the steps of: 1) applying an acoustic matching material to opposites faces (or surfaces) of a piezo electric material ceramic block; 2) cutting the block in a plane perpendicular to the two faces of the block so as to form a plurality of wafers having the acoustic matching material disposed on opposite ends; 3) assembling the wafers to form a laminated body having respective portions of the matching layer on opposite surfaces and with the wafers each being separated from an adjacent wafer by a selected gap distance and bonded together by a polymeric adhesive material; 4) cutting the laminated body along a longitudinal axis so as to form a first laminate body subassembly and a second laminate body subassembly, each of the subassemblies having a front surface having the acoustic matching material disposed thereon and a back surface where the laminate body was cut; 5) applying a backing layer to each laminate body subassembly; and 6) removing the polymeric adhesive material disposed between the wafers, whereby each subassembly comprises an ultrasound array having transducer elements separated by the selected array gap distance.