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. 21, 1996
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1994
John R Klepper, Seattle, WA (US);
Levin F Nock, Issaquah, WA (US);
Siemens Medical Systems, Inc., Iselin, NJ (US);
Abstract
A vibratory energy (ultrasonic) imaging system of the type including a transducer array having a plurality of transducer elements for generating pulses of vibratory energy which are directed towards reflectors and which receive reflections of said vibratory energy and develop echo signals in response thereto. The array comprises a two-dimensional array of transducer elements arranged in a plurality of rows extending in a lateral dimension of the array and a plurality of columns extending in an elevation dimension of the array, at least one of a first type of said columns having elements of a first height in the elevation dimension and at least one of a second type of column having elements of a second height in the elevation dimension which is greater than the first height. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the first height is an integral fraction of the second height.