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:
Oct. 19, 2004
Filed:
Jun. 27, 2002
David A. Petersen, Fall City, WA (US);
John C. Lazenby, Fall City, WA (US);
Robert P. Hunt, Sammamish, WA (US);
Robert N. Phelps, Sammamish, WA (US);
Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Malvern, PA (US);
Abstract
Methods and systems for isolating transmit and receive circuitry at an ultrasound transducer element are provided. Separate electrodes or electrodes on opposite sides of a transducer element are connected to the separate transmit and receive paths or channels. Instead of high voltage transmit and receive switching, the transducer element isolates the transmit channel from the receive channel. The transmit channel includes circuitry for limiting the voltage at one electrode during receive processing, such as a switch operable to connect the electrode to ground. The receive channel includes circuitry for limiting the voltage at an electrode during transmit processing, such as a diode clamp preventing voltage swings greater than diode voltage at the electrode. Limiting the voltage provides virtual grounding or a direct current for either of the transmit or receive operation. Using a transmit channel discussed above or other transmit channels, a unipolar pulse may be generated starting at one voltage and ending at a different voltage. For example, a unipolar pulse is generated starting at a zero voltage value and ending on a positive voltage value. A subsequent unipolar pulse is transmitted by starting at the positive voltage value and ending on the zero voltage value. These mirrored unipolar transmit waveforms may be used for phase inversion imaging, such as adding responsive received signals for isolating harmonic information.