Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-18
2001-10-09
Kamm, William E. (Department: 3762)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
active
06299580
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe which enables the improvement of directivity of an ultrasonic transmission beam by reducing the grating lobes at the time of transmitting ultrasonic waves, and to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using the ultrasonic probe as a probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a diagnosing part of a subject.
BACKGROUND ART
A conventional ultrasonic probe comprises a plurality of transducers that transmit ultrasonic waves and receive reflected echoes thereof, a backing member provided on the back surfaces of the transducers so that ultrasonic waves transmitted from the transducers will not return back again, an acoustic matching layer formed on the front surfaces of the transducers to match the difference between the acoustic impedance of the transducers and the acoustic impedance of the living body, and an acoustic lens provided on the upper surface of the acoustic matching layer to converge the ultrasonic beam. The plurality of transducers are formed in the shape of short strips which are linearly arranged in a one-dimensional manner, or in a two-dimensional manner, or are so arranged in many number that the ultrasonic wave transmitting/receiving surfaces are formed in an arcuate shape, thereby to constitute an ultrasonic probe.
The scanning of the ultrasonic beam by the above-mentioned ultrasonic probe is effected in combination of an ultrasonic transmission beam and an ultrasonic reception beam by driving the ultrasonic probe. That is, transmission signals that are time delayed are added to the transducers, to form an ultrasonic transmission beam that converges the ultrasonic waves at a given point, and the reflected echo signals received by the transducers are delayed to effect the phasing thereby to form an ultrasonic reception beam. Furthermore, an ultrasonic beam in the direction of short axis of the transducers arranged in many number is converged through an acoustic lens or the like to control the slicing thickness of the tomographic image. Moreover, two to four ultrasonic reception beams are used in combination for an ultrasonic transmission beam of one direction, to increase the number of scanning lines of the ultrasonic beams, thereby attempting to shorten the scanning time and to improve the resolution of the ultrasonic image. In order to obtain a three-dimensional image, furthermore, the two-dimensional scanning of the ultrasonic beam is effected a plural number of times in the slicing direction with respect to the subject.
By using the conventional ultrasonic probe, however, the ultrasonic transmission beam exhibits directivity. Besides, with the transducers of the conventional shape and arrangement, ultrasonic waves called grating lobes are generated in the transverse direction in addition to main lobes. Therefore, the directivity of the ultrasonic transmission beam is often deteriorated. The presence of the grating lobes causes a difference in the sensitivity among the ultrasonic beams when the number of the ultrasonic beams is increased by using a plurality of ultrasonic reception beams. Due to the difference in the sensitivity, therefore, limitation is imposed on the number of the ultrasonic reception beams and, hence, limitation is imposed on accomplishing a high frame rate of the obtained ultrasonic image. In obtaining a three-dimensional diagnostic image by using the conventional ultrasonic probe, furthermore, it is not often allowed to three-dimensionally diagnose the moving portion of the subject due to limitation on the number of the ultrasonic beams and limitation on increasing the frame rate.
In order to cope with the above-mentioned problems, therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic probe which enables the improvement of directivity of an ultrasonic transmission beam by reducing the grating lobes at the time of transmitting ultrasonic waves, and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using the ultrasonic probe as a probe for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves to and from a diagnosing part of a subject.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, an ultrasonic probe according to the present invention comprises a plurality of transducers for transmitting ultrasonic waves and for receiving the reflected echoes thereof, and has a backing member formed on the back surfaces of the transducers as well as an acoustic matching layer and an acoustic lens formed on the front surfaces of the transducers, wherein the transducers are arranged in a spherical shape.
Further, with the present invention, there is provided an ultrasonic probe comprising a plurality of transducers for transmitting ultrasonic waves and for receiving the reflected echoes thereof, and having a backing member formed on the back surfaces of the transducers as well as an acoustic matching layer and an acoustic lens formed on the front surfaces of the transducers, wherein the transducers are formed in the shape of a predetermined small block, and the number of the transducers in the form of a small block are arranged in a spherical shape on the front surface of the backing member formed in the shape of a spherical surface protruding in a semispherical manner.
The transducers may be formed in the shape of a circular plate or a polygonal plate, and the transducers of the shape of the circular plate only or the transducers of the shape of the polygonal plate only, or the transducers of the shape of the circular plate and the transducers of the shape of the polygonal plate in combination, may arranged in a spherical shape.
Furthermore, the invention is concerned with an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus as a related invention comprises a probe having a plurality of transducers that are arranged to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves into, and from, a subject, a transmission unit for transmitting transmission signals to the transducers in the probe to transmit ultrasonic waves, a reception unit for amplifying, phasing and adding the reflected echo signals from said probe, a signal processing unit for processing reception signals from the reception unit, an image storage unit for storing image data by converting the reception signals after processed into image data and effecting the image processing, a display unit for displaying the image data from the image storage unit, a control unit for controlling the operations of said constituent elements, and an input device for inputting operation instructions to said control unit, wherein the ultrasonic probe mentioned above is used as said probe, transmission signals which are in phase are sent from said transmission unit to the number of the transducers constituting the probe to generate a sound field equivalent to the one generated by a point source of sound without directivity, and said reception unit simultaneously generates a plurality of reception beams upon receiving the reception signals from the probe.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4281550 (1981-08-01), Erikson
patent: 5042493 (1991-08-01), Saito et al.
patent: 5164920 (1992-11-01), Bast et al.
patent: 5417219 (1995-05-01), Takamizawa et al.
patent: 5848969 (1998-12-01), Pangscu et al.
Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP
Hitachi Medical Corporation
Kamm William E.
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