Surgery – Truss – Pad
Patent
1989-12-26
1992-01-28
Jaworski, Francis
Surgery
Truss
Pad
310335, A61B 800
Patent
active
050835688
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention is directed generally to an ultrasound diagnosing device adapted to transmit and receive convergent ultrasound beams, and more particularly, to an ultrasound diagnosing device arranged to uniformly converge a width of the beams in a direction orthogonal to a scanning direction of sound rays widely from a short range to a long range.
BACKGROUND ARTS
Disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 62-117539 is an example of a prior art ultrasonic diagnosing device in which to improve resolving power in a direction orthogonal to a scanning direction of sound rays. This type of ultrasound diagnosing device involves the use of an ultrasound probe having a configuration depicted in FIG. 8. Referring to FIG. 8, an ultrasound probe 1 generally designated at 1 is constructed of: an oscillator element group 2 arranged such that the elements are split at predetermined pitches in the sound ray scanning direction, i.e., a direction X, while in a direction Y orthogonal to the sound ray scanning direction the elements are three-split to thereby constitute three arrays, viz., element arrays 11, 12 and 13 in the direction X; an acoustic matching layer 3 attached to an ultrasound radiation face thereof; and an acoustic lens 4 assuming a semi-circular shape. Note that a direction Z in vertical to the ultrasound radiation face. The thus constructed ultrasound probe perfoms, when a Y-directional aperture reaches its maximum in the case of a target being positioned deep, an X-directional scan, i.e., a sector scan indicated by, e.g., a one-dotted line by employing all the element trains 11, 12, and 13. During this scan, a Y-directional width of the ultrasound beams is converged by means of the acoustic lens 4. Whereas if the target is positioned shallowly, a linear scan is, as indicated by a broken line, effected by using the central oscillator element 12 alone. At this time, the Y-directional aperture is smaller than in the deep position, and the Y-directional width of the ultrasound beams is narrowed corresponding to the small aperture. In the ultrasound diagnosing device adaptive to vary the Y-directional aperture, Y-directional resolving power is improved from the shallow level to the deep level. In the prior art ultrasound diagnosing device, however, a focal point of the acoustic lens is set typically in a deep position, which in turn leads to such a problem that the ultrasound beams can not sufficiently be converged in the direction Y in the vicinity of the acoutsic lens. Videlicet, the problem is that it is impossible to obtain the resolving power which is uniform in the direction Y over a wide range from the vicinity of the acoustic lens down to the deep position.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an ultrasound diagnosing device arranged to obtain the uniform resolving power in a direction orthogonal to a scanning direction of sound rays over a wide range from the shallow to the deep.
To this end, according to one aspect of the invention, there is provided an ultrasound diagnosing device characterized in that a plurality of unidimensional arrays of a plurality of ultrasound oscillators are arranged in parallel, and ultrasound signals are transmitted and received while changing combinations of the arrays associated with transmssion and/or receiving of the ultrasound waves corresponding to a depth of an object for observation by use of an ultrasound probe mounted with an acoustic lens having an intrinsic focal distance for every array on the side of an ultrasound radiation face of those arrays.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a view of assistance in explaining a construction of fundamental components of an ultrasound probe for use with an ultrasound diagnosing device in an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view depicting the fundamental components of the ultrasound probe used for the ultrasound diagnosing device in the embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustr
REFERENCES:
patent: 4385255 (1983-05-01), Yamaguchi et al.
patent: 4532933 (1985-08-01), Hokanson
patent: 4535630 (1985-08-01), Samodovitz
patent: 4571520 (1986-02-01), Saito et al.
patent: 4616152 (1986-10-01), Saito et al.
patent: 4718421 (1988-01-01), Rohwedder et al.
Ando Motoyoshi
Shimazaki Toru
Tabei Hiroshi
Jaworski Francis
Kojima Moonray
Manuel George
Yokogawa Medical Systems Limited
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