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. 16, 2010
Filed:
Jan. 23, 2004
Hideki Okazaki, Chiba, JP;
Mikio Izumi, Saitama, JP;
Hideki Okazaki, Chiba, JP;
Mikio Izumi, Saitama, JP;
Hitachi Medical Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An array of a plurality of ultrasonic transducers having a piezoelectric layerand a couple of electrodes-and-sandwiching the piezoelectric layer therebetween is provided. The piezoelectric layerhas a first piezoelectric layer-provided on the ultrasonic-wave emission side, a second piezoelectric layer-provided on the other side of the first piezoelectric layer-, and a common electrodeprovided therebetween. Each of the ultrasonic transducers has a low-frequency response distribution that is uniform in the minor-axis direction perpendicular to a direction in which the ultrasonic transducers are arranged and a high high-frequency response distribution at a center part in the minor-axis direction. The characteristics of the minor-axis-direction frequency and sound pressure of the first piezoelectric layer are complemented by those of the second piezoelectric layer, whereby a uniform frequency characteristic for a minor-axis-direction low frequency is obtained.