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:
Dec. 23, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 05, 2001
Applicant:
Inventors:
Lowell Scott Smith, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Nim Hak Tea, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Theodore Lauer Rhyne, Whitefish Bay, WI (US);
Xuan-Ming Lu, San Jose, CA (US);
Assignee:
General Electric Company, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
A61B 8/00 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
A61B 8/00 ;
Abstract
An ultrasound transducer employs a silicon acoustic matching layer closest to the piezoelectric layer in order to achieve improved resolution. A silicon wafer, ground to an appropriate thickness, is included in the acoustic stack with other matching layer materials during transducer construction. The exact thickness is determined by the details of the design, but is nominally a quarter wavelength in the silicon.