CN212592181U

CN212592181U - Ultrasonic probe

Info

Publication number: CN212592181U
Application number: CN201922180998.9U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 郝晓辉
Original assignee: Zepu Medical Technology Suzhou Co ltd
Current assignee: Zepu Medical Technology Suzhou Co ltd
Priority date: 2018-08-07
Filing date: 2018-08-07
Publication date: 2021-02-26
Anticipated expiration: 2028-08-07
Also published as: CN209574732U

Abstract

The utility model discloses an ultrasonic probe belongs to ultrasonic diagnosis and detection area. The utility model discloses an ultrasonic probe, include: the ultrasonic transducer comprises a shell, a central array element array and a side array element array, wherein the central array element array and the side array element array are arranged in the shell; the side array element array is arranged on the side part of the central array element array, the side array element array is provided with an independent control circuit, and the working state of the side array element array can be controlled manually or through electric signals. The novel array element array is laterally added in the vertical direction of the central array element array of the conventional linear array probe, so that a needle body is easier to find, capture and display in an image, the problem that the needle body cannot be found by a clinician due to lack of experience is solved, the lateral array is closed after the needle body is found, the system can recover the high-resolution conventional working mode to continuously maintain good image quality, and the system is suitable for clinical use.

Description

Ultrasonic probe

The application is a divisional application, the application number of a parent application is 2018212635818, the application date is 8 months and 7 days in 2018, and the name is as follows: biopsy probe visualization enhances ultrasound probes and ultrasound imaging systems.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of ultrasonic diagnosis and detection, in particular to an ultrasonic probe.

Background

In the puncture biopsy of human organ tissues and the interventional minimally invasive surgery, an ultrasonic high-frequency linear array probe or a low-frequency convex array probe is generally used for guiding a biopsy probe and an interventional needle head. In china and the united states, many clinicians do not use a piercing cradle mounted on an ultrasound probe for needle biopsy guidance or interventional needle guidance, but rather operate according to the experience of the clinician. When the needle tip is inside the human tissue, they make a judgment by the subtle feeling generated and transmitted by the resistance encountered by the needle tip's travel in the human body and the image displayed by the ultrasound device.

In operation, a physician typically grasps the transducer in one hand, places the transducer on the skin surface above the biopsy or interventional procedure site, and then controls and manipulates the needle with the other hand under real-time monitoring of the ultrasound device. This operation is so difficult that it is usually the most experienced sonographer in the ultrasound department who can perform the operation. The main reason for using this method is that the operating physician often cannot find the needle body and the needle head of the puncture or interventional needle in the ultrasound image during the actual operation, so that the operation can only be performed based on experience.

One of the main reasons for this problem, in terms of the equipment employed, is that: the conventional high-frequency linear array probe usually works at a higher central frequency, such as 10-12MHz, and an effective sound field generated in the direction vertical to the array element arrangement direction of the probe is thinner, so that a thin-wall sound field which is longer along the array element arrangement direction of the probe and thinner in the direction vertical to the array element arrangement direction is formed. Most of the time, the ultrasonic imaging monitoring in tissue puncture biopsy and interventional operation is that the puncture needle is expected to be parallel to the array element arrangement direction of the probe and fall into a thin-wall sound field of probe imaging, the thinner sound field often enables the effective sound field range of ultrasound and the puncture needle to pass by rubbing the shoulder, so that doctors are difficult to capture the puncture needle by using the sound field, and the requirements on the experience and the manipulation of the doctors are very high.

After search, the prior art discloses a puncture enhancement method (application No. 201510888869.9), which includes: when the ultrasonic probe of the round transmits ultrasonic waves with a large deflection angle for scanning so as to enhance and display the puncture needle image, specific waveform ultrasonic waves with a plurality of different transmitting angles are transmitted for scanning; identifying the insertion orientation of the puncture needle according to the scanned image frame data corresponding to the specific waveform ultrasonic waves under a plurality of different emission angles; and adjusting a large deflection angle corresponding to the next round of ultrasonic probe when transmitting the ultrasonic waves with the large deflection angle according to the identified insertion orientation of the puncture needle, wherein the transmission direction of the ultrasonic waves is vertical or approximately vertical to the identified insertion orientation of the puncture needle under the large deflection angle.

The puncture enhancement system disclosed by the scheme still adopts the method of adjusting the rotation angle of the ultrasonic probe to increase the image acquisition effect of the probe, and actually still needs a doctor to continuously search for the probe during operation, and does not solve the problems of the existing ultrasonic probe.

Disclosure of Invention

1. Technical problem to be solved by the invention

The invention aims to overcome the defect that a needle body and a needle head of a puncture or intervention needle cannot be found frequently in an ultrasonic image in the prior art, and provides an ultrasonic probe. The lateral probe array elements added to the ultrasonic probe expand the thickness of the transducer array elements in the vertical direction, so that a laterally thickened effective wall-type ultrasonic sound field is generated during imaging, and the visibility of the biopsy needle under real-time ultrasonic monitoring is enhanced.

2. Technical scheme

In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme provided by the invention is as follows:

an ultrasonic probe of the present invention includes:

a housing;

the central array element array is used for generating an ultrasonic sound field and is arranged in the shell;

and the side array element arrays are arranged on the side parts of the central array element array in parallel, and the generated ultrasonic sound field is superposed with the ultrasonic sound field of the central array element array to obtain a thicker ultrasonic sound field.

As a further improvement of the invention, the array element wafer material of the central array element array is one of a piezoelectric ceramic material, a piezoelectric ceramic composite material, a capacitive micro-electromechanical ultrasonic sensor chip or a piezoelectric ceramic micro-electromechanical ultrasonic sensor chip; the array element wafer material of the side array element array is one of a piezoelectric ceramic material, a piezoelectric ceramic composite material, a piezoelectric ceramic single crystal material, a capacitive micro-electro-mechanical ultrasonic sensor chip or a piezoelectric ceramic micro-electro-mechanical ultrasonic sensor chip. In one case, both the central array element and the side array elements are capacitive micro-electromechanical ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs). In one case, the central array element array and the side array elements are piezoelectric ceramic micro-electromechanical ultrasonic transducers (PMUT).

As a further improvement of the invention, the probe is a high-frequency linear array probe or a convex array probe.

As a further improvement of the invention, at least one side array element array is respectively arranged on two sides of the central array element array.

As a further improvement of the invention, the number of the array elements of the side array element array is the same as that of the central array element array; and/or: the array element spacing of the side array element array is the same as the array element spacing of the central array element array.

As a further improvement of the invention, the height of the array elements in the side array element array is not larger than the height of the array elements in the central array element array.

As a further improvement of the invention, the side array element array is provided with an independent control circuit, and the working state of the side array element array can be controlled manually or through electric signals.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the housing is provided with a control switch for performing manual control of the operating state of the side array element array.

As a further improvement of the invention, only the end of the central array element array is covered by an acoustic lens; or: the ends of the central array element array and the side array element array are covered by the acoustic lens.

As a further improvement of the invention, the sound heads of the side array element arrays are obliquely arranged relative to the central array element array to form an outward opening angle, so that the side array element arrays are opened outwards.

An ultrasonic imaging system of the present invention includes:

an ultrasonic transmitting module for generating a transmitting pulse;

the ultrasonic probe comprises a central array element array and a side array element array, and is used for sending the emission pulse generated by the ultrasonic emission module as a sound wave signal, receiving the returned sound wave signal and converting the returned sound wave signal into a corresponding electric signal;

the ultrasonic receiving module is used for receiving the electric wave signal returned by the ultrasonic probe, processing the signal and then displaying the image; under certain conditions, the ultrasonic receiving module and the ultrasonic probe are integrated circuit chips which are directly connected, and the returned sound wave signals can also be directly received by the ultrasonic receiving module.

And the user interface is used for controlling the system control unit to execute corresponding operation.

As a further improvement of the invention, the ultrasonic transmitting module comprises a transmitting waveform generator, which sends the generated waveform to a transmitting beam forming unit for corresponding focusing delay, then sends the waveform to a pulse generator, and sends a transmitting pulse to the central array element array and the side array element array through a transmitting/receiving T/R unit.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the ultrasound receiving module includes a receiving front end which amplifies an electrical signal converted from an acoustic wave signal and forms a digital signal through an a/D converter, performs dynamic focusing in a receiving beam forming unit to form a receiving beam, and then forms an ultrasound image through an intermediate processing unit and an image post-processing unit in sequence to display on a display.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the side array element array is configured with an independent control circuit, and the electric signal generated by the side control unit controls the working state of the side array element array, and the side control unit is controlled through a user interface or a control switch.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the ultrasonic transmitting module, the ultrasonic receiving module and the ultrasonic probe transmit and receive signals through the transmitting/receiving T/R unit; the electric signal generated by the lateral control unit controls the working state of the lateral array element array by switching on or off the connection between the lateral array element array and the transmitting/receiving T/R unit.

As a further improvement of the invention, the system also comprises an image analysis unit which acquires a real-time image from a post-processing unit in the ultrasonic receiving module, identifies whether a needle body exists in the image, and sends a signal to the system control unit if no needle body exists, and the side array element array is adjusted to be in a working state through the side control unit.

As a further improvement of the present invention, when the image analysis unit determines that there is a pin in the image, it further determines whether the pin is in the sound field of the central array element array, and if it is true, the system control unit sends a signal to the lateral control unit to disconnect the operation of the lateral array element array.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the image analysis unit determines whether a needle body is present or not by a gray scale and an object slenderness ratio in the ultrasound image.

The invention relates to a using method of an ultrasonic imaging system, which comprises the following specific processes:

s01, only opening the central array element array to scan the target object in the normal mode, and acquiring a clear ultrasonic image;

s02, finding a target area to be subjected to tissue biopsy or interventional operation through real-time scanning;

s03, inserting the surgical probe into a target area of human tissue;

s04, opening the array element array at the side edge, and entering a pin body capturing mode with the increased thickness of the effective sound field in the vertical array direction so as to quickly find and capture the probe pin body;

s05, operating the probe and the needle body to capture the needle body;

s06, judging whether a needle body is found or not, and if not, continuing the operation of S05; if the needle body is found, the ultrasonic probe is moved, so that the needle body moves to a sound field generated by the central array element array, and the target capture of the needle body is completed.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the steps S04 to S06 are performed by manual observation in cooperation with the use of a control switch, or automatically with the participation of an image analysis unit.

As a further improvement of the present invention, said step S06 is followed by the step of acquiring a clear image:

s07, closing the side array element array to stop working, recovering the working mode of only the central array element array, and observing the ultrasonic image;

s08, judging whether the needle body is lost in the image, if so, returning to the step S04; if the needle body exists, entering the next step;

s09, when the needle body is present, the scanning imaging is continued while the judgment of step S8 is performed.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the steps S04 to S09 are performed by manual observation in cooperation with the use of a control switch, or automatically with the participation of an image analysis unit.

As a further improvement of the present invention, the process of determining whether a needle body is present or not using the image analysis unit after step S04 is:

s1, binarizing the image through an image gray threshold determined in advance by manual judgment or deep learning;

s2, performing target separation on the binarized ultrasonic image;

s3, analyzing the separated targets, and searching for targets with slenderness ratios and straightness exceeding set values;

s4, sending the target meeting the characteristics in the S3 to pattern recognition or an artificial intelligence network for analysis so as to judge whether the target is a target needle body;

s5, according to the result in S4, a corresponding signal of needle found or not found is sent to the control system unit.

In the present invention, in addition to the central array element array possessed by a general probe, an array element array of two or more ultrasonic probes is added to the probe in a direction perpendicular to the array direction of the probe elements, i.e., in the probe lateral direction. The added side probe array element expands the vertical direction, namely the lateral direction, of the array direction of the transducer elements, so that an effective wall-type ultrasonic sound field with lateral thickening is generated during imaging. The wall type ultrasonic sound field is formed by arranging ultrasonic sound beams with a plurality of central points on array elements from one end of a probe to the other end in the arrangement direction of the array elements of the probe. The interface of the sound field, which is vertical to the array element arrangement direction, is a hyperboloid. The added lateral probe array increases the thickness of the hyperboloid, thereby increasing the effective range of an ultrasonic sound field, and enabling the puncture needle which is parallel or approximately parallel to the array element arrangement direction of the ultrasonic probe to be captured more easily in actual operation. The side array elements and the central array elements of the two-side ultrasonic probe are controlled separately and can be switched on or switched off through a control button on a handle of the transducer. Thus, the enhanced probe search function of opening the two-sided array can be selected for use, or not used, and this selection can be switched during use of the probe.

3. Advantageous effects

Compared with the prior art, the technical scheme provided by the invention has the following beneficial effects:

the ultrasonic probe is provided with the plurality of side array element arrays at the side part of the central array element array, and the added side array element expands the width of the transducer array element in the vertical direction, so that an effective wall-type ultrasonic sound field with thickened side is generated during imaging, and a puncture needle body can be captured more easily.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is an exemplary diagram of a high-frequency linear array ultrasonic probe monitoring puncture probe;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary diagram of a linear array probe with multiple rows of array elements to enhance visualization of a biopsy probe;

FIG. 3 is an example of visual enhancement of a needle under a multi-row array element array in an ultrasonic effective sound field;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a vertical cross section of an acoustic field generated by array elements of a central array element array and a side array element array of an ultrasonic probe;

FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a sound field generated when the heights of array elements of the side array element array are equal to the height of a central array element;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of an arrangement of acoustic lenses on an ultrasonic probe;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an array arrangement with an angle between the side array elements and the central array;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a cross-section of a sound field generated when an angle is formed between a side array element array and a central array element array;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an ultrasound probe with a side array element array control switch;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an ultrasonic imaging system with side array elements individually controlled;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of an ultrasound imaging system including intelligent control of a side array element array;

FIG. 12 is a schematic view of a clinical procedure for finding a puncture or interventional needle body;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of an image analysis algorithm for finding the body of a puncture or interventional needle;

fig. 14 is a schematic diagram of a convex array probe with an array of side array elements.

The reference numerals in the schematic drawings illustrate: 100. a transducer probe; 101. a central array element array; 102/103, side array element array; 104. A transmission/reception T/R unit; 105. a pulse generator; 106. a transmit beamforming unit; 107. a waveform generator; 108. Receiving a front end; 109. an A/D converter; 110. a receive beamforming unit; 111. an intermediate processing unit; 112. an image post-processing unit; 113. a system control unit; 114. a user interface; 115. a display; 116. an image analysis unit; 117. A lateral control unit; 200. an effective acoustic field domain; 201/202/203, effective sound field; 300. a wall-shaped ultrasonic sound field; 400. a needle body; 401/402/403, sound field area; 500. a probe plane; 600. a control switch; 601/602, circuit switches; 700. an acoustic lens; 800. an ultrasound image; 900. a convex array probe; 901. a central array element array; 902/903, side array element array; 904. And a control button.

Detailed Description

For a further understanding of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and examples.

The structure, proportion, size and the like shown in the drawings of the present specification are only used for matching with the content disclosed in the specification, so as to be understood and read by those skilled in the art, and are not used for limiting the limit conditions of the present invention, so that the present invention has no technical essence, and any structural modification, proportion relation change or size adjustment should still fall within the scope of the technical content disclosed in the present invention without affecting the efficacy and the achievable purpose of the present invention. In addition, the terms "upper", "lower", "left", "right" and "middle" used in the present specification are for clarity of description, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and the relative relationship between the terms and the relative positions may be changed or adjusted without substantial technical changes.

Fig. 1 shows an example of the real-time monitoring of the needle body of the puncture probe by the high-frequency linear array probe, but the needle body cannot be found. In the imaging process, the transducer probe 100 of the high-frequency linear array probe emits a plurality of ultrasonic beams from left to right to the underlying tissue to form a wall-type ultrasonic sound field 300 with a hyperboloid interface in the direction perpendicular to the length direction of the side wall of the transducer probe 100, and the effective sound field area 200 of the wall-type ultrasonic sound field is defined as the effective range of the sound field of-30 decibels below the maximum sound intensity. Objects within this effective acoustic field range will be clearly visible in the ultrasound image.

If the piercing probe body 400 falls fully or partially within this active acoustic field 200, it will be displayed in a real-time image. During actual biopsy or interventional procedures, the puncture needles are typically aligned parallel to the probe elements, which are aligned along the lengthwise side walls of the transducer probe 100, and thus the needle body 400 is parallel to the direction of extension of the side walls. When the needle 400 falls outside the effective acoustic field 200, for example, the needle 400 is on the probe plane 500 but outside the effective acoustic field 200, it cannot be captured by the effective acoustic field and is therefore not visible in the resulting ultrasound image.

Examples

With reference to fig. 2, the visual enhanced ultrasonic probe of biopsy probe of this embodiment has the same basic structure as the existing probe, and includes an external housing and an array element disposed in the housing, where the plurality of array elements are arranged in parallel to form a central array element array 101. In addition, a side array element array is arranged in the shell and is arranged on the side of the central array element array 101 in parallel, and an ultrasonic sound field generated by the side array element array is superposed with an ultrasonic sound field of the central array element array 101 to obtain a thicker ultrasonic sound field.

The superposition of the ultrasonic sound fields refers to the accumulation of the sound fields in the direction perpendicular to the array element arrangement direction, so that the spatial thickness of the sound fields is increased, and the better visualization effect of the ultrasonic sound fields on the needle body 400 of the puncture probe parallel to the main body direction of the sound fields is realized.

As an implementation manner, only one side array element array may be disposed on a single side of the central array element array 101, which has a certain effect on thickening the ultrasonic field.

Preferably, at least one side array element is provided on each side of the central array element 101 to enhance the puncture probe visualization.

Fig. 2 shows an embodiment of a multi-row linear array probe for enhancing visualization of a puncture probe, which includes a side array element 102 disposed on the upper side of a central array element 101 and a side array element 103 disposed on the lower side thereof. The side array elements on both sides of the central array element array 101 and the central array element array 101 may have the same number of array element elements, and may have different or the same array element spacing, preferably the same array element spacing.

In the coordinate system in fig. 2, the azimuth direction is the array element arrangement direction in the array, the elevation direction is perpendicular to the array element arrangement direction, and also is perpendicular to the side wall of the probe, and the array elements are distributed along the elevation direction.

The height h of each array element in the

side array elements

102 and 103 may be the same as or shorter than the center array element 101, and is referred to as the length in the direction perpendicular to the side walls of the transducer probe 100 or the array elements. In addition, the array element array at the side of the ultrasonic transducer probe can be made of the same material as the array element array at the center, for example, one of piezoelectric ceramic material, piezoelectric ceramic composite material or piezoelectric ceramic single crystal material. Or the array may be made of a material different from that of the central array element array 101, for example, the central array element array 101 is made of a piezoelectric ceramic single crystal material, and the two rows of side array elements are made of a piezoelectric ceramic material or a piezoelectric ceramic composite material. Or in another embodiment, the central array element array and the side array element array are both capacitive micro-electromechanical Ultrasonic Sensors (CMUTs) or piezoelectric ceramic micro-electromechanical Ultrasonic Sensors (PMUTs).

Fig. 3 shows an example of the visual enhancement of the needle under the multi-row array element array in an ultrasonic effective sound field. The effective sound field comprises the sound field generated by the additional two rows of ultrasonic transducer side

array element arrays

102 and 103. When the ultrasonic probe is in an imaging state, in addition to the effective ultrasonic sound field 201 generated by the central array element array 101, if the side array elements are all opened in the imaging state, the side array element array 102 will generate an additional effective ultrasonic sound field 202, and the side array element array 103 will generate an additional effective ultrasonic sound field 203, so as to form the superposition effect of the ultrasonic sound fields.

As shown in fig. 3, these additional ultrasonically active

acoustic fields

202 and 203, in combination with the active acoustic field 201 generated by the central array element 101, will form a combined active acoustic field having a greater thickness in the vertical direction, i.e. in the lateral direction perpendicular to the array element arrangement direction, than the active acoustic field 201 generated by the central array element alone, and the increased acoustic field thickness of the particular lateral acoustic field in the vertical direction can be calculated from the height of the array elements in each array element.

Fig. 4 shows a vertical cross-section of the 3dB sound field generated by the array elements of the three-row array of ultrasound transducer probes of fig. 2 without additional focusing of the acoustic lens. In fig. 4, the height of the central array element 101 is h0, the height of the

side array elements

102 and 103 is h1, and the distance between the central array element 101 and the side array elements is m 0. The 3dB sound field vertical boundaries generated by the array elements of the three arrays are shown as

sound field regions

401, 402 and 403, respectively.

The array element of the central array element array is a central array element, and the depth of a near field area of a 3dB sound field generated by the central array element is as follows:

d0 ═ h0^2/(4 × wavelength), in the near field region, the width of the 3dB sound field generated by the central array element is h0, and then the sound field starts to diverge, and the divergence opening angle is: α 0 ═ arcsin (0.61 × 2: wavelength/h 0). Here, wavelength is an acoustic wavelength. Correspondingly, the near field depth of the 3dB sound field generated by the array elements of the side array element array is as follows: d1 ═ h1^2/(4 × wavelength), and its rear sound field divergence opening angle: α 1 ═ arcsin (0.61 × 2: wavelength/h 1).

Assuming that the central frequency of the emission waveform of the probe is 8MHz, and thus the wavelength is 0.2 mm, the array element height h0 of the central array element array of the probe is 4 mm, the array element height h1 of the two side arrays is 3 mm, the 3dB near-field depth of the array element of the middle array element array 101 is 2 cm, and the divergence angle α 0 is 3.5 degrees. The 3dB near field depth of the array elements of the array element arrays on the two sides is 1.13 cm, and the divergence angle alpha 1 is 4.7 degrees.

It can be concluded that the increase of the array elements of the two rows of side array element arrays increases the thickness of the 3dB sound field of the combined effective sound field in the vertical direction rapidly: within the depth of D1, increasing from h0 to h0+2 h1+ 2m 0, typically m0 is negligibly small. The thickness of the 3dB sound field at any depth D greater than D1 is H2 x (D-D1) x tan (α 1) +2 x H1+ H0. Taking the example probe as an example, in fig. 4, at a depth of 3 cm, the thickness h3 in the vertical direction of the 3dB sound field is 1.15 cm. Whereas in the case of only the central array element array, the 3dB sound field vertical thickness h03 at this depth is only 4.6 mm, only one third of the thickness of the superimposed sound field.

As mentioned above, in a biopsy or interventional procedure, the needle body 400 of the puncture or surgical needle is usually placed parallel to the array element arrangement direction of the ultrasound transducer for a better viewing angle, in which case a wider lateral thickness will help the ultrasound effective acoustic field to capture the needle body more easily during the biopsy needle guidance. If properly done, this will greatly improve the sensitivity of the ultrasound probe to find the needle 400 of the penetrating probe when performing a tissue biopsy or interventional procedure needle guidance under real-time imaging monitoring of the ultrasound probe.

In fig. 3, the probe body 400 of the piercing probe appears in the effective acoustic field 202 newly generated by the side array element array 102, rather than the central effective acoustic field 201 generated by the central array element array 101. The new acoustic field generated by the newly added array of side elements 102 increases the probability that the piercing probe will be captured and displayed in the ultrasound image.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the sound field generated when the array elements of the side array element array are equal in height to the central array element. The array element of the central array element array is used as a central array element, the array element of the side array element array is used as a side array element, when the height of the side array element is equal to the height of the central array element, namely h0 is h1, the length of a near field region D1 is D0, the thickness of the side array element in the vertical direction of a 3dB sound field is also h03, the thickness of the side array element is h3 increased after the side array element is superposed with the sound field of the central array element array, the height of the side array element array is smaller than the height of the central array element, namely h1 is smaller than the thickness of the side array element array under the condition that h0 is h3 shown in fig. 4. Finally, the thickness h03+ h3+ h3 generated by the superposition of all sound fields is reduced relative to the use of side array elements with smaller height, and the thickness of the lateral sound field is increased.

Similarly, when the array element height of the side array element array is larger than that of the central array element array, the sound field thickness can be increased within a certain range, and the probability that the probe is captured and displayed in the ultrasonic image can be improved.

In this embodiment, the number of array elements in the side array elements may be smaller than the number of array elements in the central array element. As another embodiment, the array element spacing of the side array element array may be controlled to be larger than the array element spacing of the central array element array. When the length of the array element array at the side edge is equal to that of the array element array at the center, the array elements are arranged in a small number, and the distance between the array elements is inevitably increased. If the length of the array of side array elements is not the same as the length of the array of central array elements, there is also a possibility that the array element gap is smaller when there are fewer array elements in the array of side array elements. The probe needle body can be found faster by utilizing the sound field generated by the side array element array, and after the needle body is captured, the probe can be moved to obtain clearer image information by utilizing the central array element array, so that as long as the sound field of the side array element array can generate sound wave signals for quickly finding the probe, the number and the spacing of the array elements are not particularly limited.

In one implementation, as shown in fig. 6, the side array elements on both sides may not use acoustic lenses, thereby generating a greater sound field thickness in the vertical direction. In fig. 6, the central array 101 has an acoustic lens 700, while the two side arrays have no lens.

Of course, in another implementation, the central array element array 101 and both side

array element arrays

102 and 103 may be within the acoustic lens footprint.

In yet another implementation, in order to further increase the thickness of the lateral sound field, the surfaces of the two side array elements and the surface of the central array element have an outward-inclined angle, as shown in fig. 7, and the surface of the side array element 102 and the central array element 101 have an angle b1, so that the sound field generated by the two side array elements 102 is deflected in a direction away from the sound field of the central array element 101. As shown in fig. 8, the main axes of the sound fields 402 and 403 generated by the two side array elements 102 are opened to two sides by an angle of b1 compared with the sound field generated by the central array element 101, so as to enlarge the thickness of the lateral sound field. In a specific implementation, when the sound head of the side array element array 102 is installed, only the sound head needs to be deflected outwards by an angle b 1.

Generally, a wider sound field perpendicular to the array element arrangement direction of the ultrasonic probe array often results in lower spatial resolution and unclear image. This is because the sum of the ultrasonic echo signals at a specific depth and a specific transverse position produces signals on which the ultrasonic image is generated at the depth and the transverse position, while the thicker wall-type ultrasonic sound field makes more human tissues longitudinally, i.e. perpendicular to the ultrasonic plane direction, or elevation direction, at the specific depth and the transverse position, and the generation of the ultrasonic echo signals of more human tissues at the position leads to the generation of the images at the position to be indistinguishable longitudinally and blurred in the tissue at the position, so that the generated contrast is poor.

In order to avoid the reduction of the image contrast resolution, the present embodiment adds a separate control to the side array element array, that is, the side array element array is configured with an independent control circuit, and only when necessary, the two rows of side array element arrays outside the central array element array are opened, so as to form an effective sound field with thicker array element arrangement in the vertical direction (i.e., the elevation direction).

Fig. 9 shows an embodiment of manually controlling the operation of the array of side elements. A control switch 600 is mounted on the handle formed by the housing of the transducer probe 100. the control switch 600 may be of the push button or knob type. Taking the button type as an example, when a user needs to open the side array element arrays on the two sides, the user can press the button, and the system is connected with the two rows of arrays to form a thickened wall type ultrasonic effective sound field. When not needed, the system will turn off the lateral array by simply pressing this button again.

In another implementation, the opening and closing of the

array elements

102 and 103 on the side of the probe are controlled by electric signals, and the system control unit sends signals to control whether the array elements on the side are operated.

FIG. 10 illustrates an ultrasound imaging system employing an ultrasound probe with side array elements for individual control, the ultrasound imaging system including an ultrasound transmit module for generating transmit pulses; the ultrasonic probe comprises a central array element array and a side array element array, and is used for sending the transmitting pulse generated by the ultrasonic transmitting module as a sound wave signal, receiving the returned sound wave signal and converting the returned sound wave signal into a corresponding electric signal; the ultrasonic receiving module is used for receiving the electric signal returned by the ultrasonic probe, processing the signal and then performing imaging display; and the user interface is used for controlling the system control unit to execute corresponding operation.

As shown in fig. 10, the ultrasound transmission module includes a waveform generator 107 that generates a transmission waveform, which is sent to the transmission beam forming unit 106 for transmission time delay and then sent to the pulse generator 105, wherein the specific operations and waveform transmission of the pulse generator 105, the transmission beam forming unit 106, and the waveform generator 107 are controlled by the system control unit 113. The generated transmission pulse of each channel is sent to a transmission/reception T/R unit, namely a transmission/reception changeover switch unit, and the T/R unit 104 sends the transmission pulse of each channel to each array element array, including the central array element array 101 and the two side array element arrays.

Wherein, the array element circuit leading to the side array element array 102 is provided with a circuit switch 602, the array element circuit leading to the side array element array 103 is provided with a circuit switch 601, the circuit switches 601 and 602 are simultaneously controlled by a control switch 600, which controls the switches 11 and 12. When the button of the control switch 600 is pressed by the operating doctor, the

side array elements

102 and 103 are turned on. At this time, the transmit pulse sent from the T/R unit 104 will be sent to the corresponding array elements in the central array element array and the side array element array at the same time, and the tissue reflection echo signals received by the array elements in the central array element array and the side array element array will be merged in the T/R unit 104 after being converted into corresponding electrical signals, and the naturally integrated signals will be sent to the front end 108 of the analog signal reception through the T/R unit 104. At the moment, the system is in a needle body searching imaging working mode, and the generated lateral thicker wall type ultrasonic sound field is beneficial to capturing the needle body.

If the control switch 600 is not pressed, the transmit pulse will be sent only to the central array element array 101, and correspondingly, only the electrical signal converted from the tissue echo signal received by the central array element array 101 will be sent to the T/R unit 104 and to the analog signal receiving front end 108 for signal amplification. In the analog signal receiving front end 108, the echo signal is amplified, filtered, and then sent to the a/D converter 109 to be converted into a digital signal. Under the condition, the system works in a normal ultrasonic imaging mode, and the image definition and the contrast are high.

In view of the development of chip technology, the analog signal front end 108 and the a/D converter 109 are usually integrated in one chip unit. The converted digital signal will realize dynamic focusing in the receive beam forming unit 110 to form a receive beam. The received beams will pass through the subsequent intermediate processing unit 111 and image post-processing unit 112, and finally form a display image to be displayed on the display 115.

It should be noted that the units starting from the receive beamforming unit 110 and the system control unit 113 may be implemented on a large-scale programmable gate array FPGA and a signal processing chip DSP; the method can also be realized on a PC (personal computer) or in an embedded system; or one part is realized on an FPGA and a DSP, and the other part is realized on a PC or an embedded system. In this system, turning on and off the array of side array elements is accomplished by controlling the switch 600. Generally, one operation of the button corresponding to the control switch 600 will turn on the side array element array and the T/R unit, and another operation of the button will turn off the connection of the T/R unit and the side array element array.

In addition, the electrical signals may also be sent by the lateral control unit 117 to control the circuit switches 601 and 602, while the corresponding control switch 600 is used to cause the lateral control unit 117 to generate a corresponding electrical signal.

In another system implementation, the opening and closing of the

array elements

102 and 103 on the side of the probe is automatically performed by the system control unit through the analysis of the image.

Fig. 11 shows an example of implementation of the ultrasound system. In this system, a user manipulates the system control unit 113 via the user interface 114 to cause the system to enter a clinical biopsy or interventional procedure needle guidance mode of operation. In this mode, the system control unit turns on the image analysis unit 116 and sends the real-time ultrasound image from the image post-processing unit 112 to the image analysis unit 116, where image analysis based on artificial intelligence or image pattern recognition will identify whether a puncture needle is present in the image.

If the puncture needle body 400 does not appear in the real-time ultrasound image, the image analysis unit 116 feeds back to the system control unit 113, and the system control unit 113 sends an instruction to the lateral control unit 117 to inform the lateral control unit to open the lateral array, so as to generate a thickened wall-type effective ultrasound field, and enable the system to be in a needle body searching imaging mode, so as to find the puncture needle body better. When the needle body of the puncture needle is captured by the ultrasonic field of the probe and forms a strong echo in the ultrasonic image, the image analysis unit 116 will determine whether the needle body is already in the effective sound field formed by the array elements of the central array element array 101 according to a preset threshold. Generally, if the needle body is in the sound field range of the central array element array, the generated echo signal is stronger, and the strength is judged by an empirical value. If the judgment is true, the system considers that the needle body 400 of the puncture probe can be captured even if the lateral array is closed, the image analysis unit 116 sends the result to the system control unit 113, and the system control unit 113 sends a signal to the lateral control unit 117 to close the

lateral arrays

102 and 103, so that the image is in a high-definition normal operation mode.

In the ultrasonic imaging system of the side array element array ultrasonic probe shown in fig. 11, the specific identification of the puncture needle body is mainly to judge whether a slender object in a strong echo area appears in an ultrasonic image. The echo intensity of the object expressed by gray scale in the ultrasonic image and the slenderness ratio of the object are used for judging whether the puncture needle body appears in the image.

Fig. 12 shows a flow chart of the real-time operation of the multi-side array ultrasonic probe and the imaging system in practical clinical operation. For the ultrasonic imaging system, the specific use method is as follows:

s01, only opening the central array element array 101 to scan the target object in the normal mode, and acquiring a clear ultrasonic image;

in real-time use, the clinician may first turn on only the elements of the central array element 101 to scan the target object in the normal high resolution mode to obtain a better contrast ultrasound image.

s03, inserting the surgical probe into a target area of human tissue;

as mentioned above, in the mode, the visual field of the sound field of the ultrasonic probe is greatly expanded in the vertical direction of the array element arrangement, so that the puncture or intervention probe needle body entering the wall-type sound field main direction of the ultrasonic probe, namely the array element arrangement direction is basically parallel to the needle body of the probe can be better observed, and the needle body of the probe can be easier to capture.

S05, operating the probe and the needle body to capture the needle body;

In steps S05 and S06, the physician will look for the probe in this mode, and after manipulating the probe and needle so that the needle is captured and displayed in the image, the physician can move the ultrasound probe so that the needle moves towards the sound field produced by the array of central elements of the probe, which is more apparent.

In steps S04 to S06, the doctor manually operates the control switch 600 to turn on and off the array of side array elements, and observes whether or not the needle is captured through the display. The opening and closing of the side array element array can be controlled through the operation of a user interface, and whether a needle body is captured or not is observed through a display.

Furthermore, if a better real-time image is desired for puncture or interventional procedure monitoring, step S06 may be followed by the following operations:

s07, pressing the control switch again to close the side array element array to stop working, recovering the working mode of only the central array element array, and observing the ultrasonic image;

After the lateral line is closed, if the probe cannot be found in the real-time scan of step S08, the physician can go back to step S04 to turn on the lateral line button again to better show the needle and capture the needle again. If the needle is in the field of view, the physician can continue to move the needle and perform the puncture or interventional procedure monitoring with only the central array element array open.

If the needle is evident in step S08, the physician may continue to perform real-time guidance of the needle for a biopsy or interventional procedure using only the central array elements in step 609, completing the procedure.

It should be noted that although the control of the central array element array and the side array element array of the ultrasound probe from step S04 to step S09 is manually performed by the main physician, according to the example shown in fig. 9, the control from step S04 to step S09 can be automatically performed by the system with the help of the image analysis unit, so that the physician can focus on the real-time guidance of the needle for puncturing or intervention.

The invention provides an image analysis method for searching a needle body, which aims at identifying whether the needle body of a puncture needle appears in an image through image analysis of image pattern identification by an image analysis unit.

Fig. 13 shows a flow of an algorithm for image analysis in the image analysis unit, wherein the ultrasound image 800 is a real ultrasound image for monitoring puncture, and a white bar is a captured puncture needle.

The process of judging whether a needle body is present by the image analysis unit in fig. 13 is as follows:

s2, performing target separation on the binarized ultrasonic image;

target separation may include multiple image processing steps, such as image filtering, feature extraction, image segmentation, etc., to cluster and integrate objects in the image, which results in multiple separated targets.

wherein: slenderness ratio-length/average width; straightness-1-maximum width change/length.

If a needle is found the image analysis unit 116 will send a needle found signal to the system control unit 113, otherwise the system control unit 113 will be informed that a needle is not found.

In step S1, the image is binarized according to the image gray threshold determined in advance based on experience or deep learning, and the target corresponding to the characteristics is sent to the pattern recognition or artificial intelligence network for analysis in step S4 to determine whether the target is a needle for puncture or intervention. The result is sent to the determiner S5. If a needle is found the image analysis unit 116 will send a needle found signal to the system control unit 113, otherwise the system control unit 113 will be informed that a needle is not found.

For the above-mentioned pattern recognition and artificial intelligence network, only feature analysis is performed when judging, or the object meeting the condition is judged, the technology can be realized by the existing program, and is not described again.

The invention takes the high-frequency linear array probe as an example, in the engineering practice, the invention can also be conveniently used for a convex array probe so as to better find a puncture or intervention needle body in liver/kidney tissue puncture biopsy or abdominal intervention operation.

Fig. 14 shows a convex array probe 900 using the multi-sided array element array of the present invention, which has 3 rows of array element arrays, including a central array element array 901, array element arrays in the vertical direction, i.e., a side array element array 902 and a side array element array 903, and a control button 904. Where the

side array elements

902 and 903 have the same number of elements as the center array element 901, their height h1 may be the same as or shorter than the height h0 of the center array element 901, or in some implementations, larger. The imaging and imaging control mode of the convex array probe 900 is substantially the same as the imaging control mode of the multi-side array high-frequency linear array probe described above.

It should be noted that although the invention only refers to adding two rows of array elements in the lateral direction, in practice, the invention can be extended to more rows of array elements, such as 5 rows, 7 rows, etc., as required. In order to further improve the visual effect of the ultrasonic probe on the puncture and interventional operation probes, in other implementations, the lateral array elements may also have different center frequencies, so that different array element intervals and even different numbers of array elements are provided, thereby increasing the effective thickness of the wall-type ultrasonic sound field generated by the probe as much as possible and making it easier to capture the puncture needle body parallel to the main direction of the sound field.

The present invention and its embodiments have been described above schematically, without limitation, and what is shown in the drawings is only one of the embodiments of the present invention, and the actual structure is not limited thereto. Therefore, if the person skilled in the art receives the teaching, without departing from the spirit of the invention, the person skilled in the art shall not inventively design the similar structural modes and embodiments to the technical solution, but shall fall within the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. An ultrasound probe, comprising: the acoustic emission device comprises a shell, a central array element array and a side array element array, wherein the central array element array and the side array element array are arranged in the shell and used for acoustic emission and reception; the side array element array is arranged on the side part of the central array element array, the side array element array is provided with an independent control circuit, and the working state of the side array element array can be controlled manually or through electric signals.

2. An ultrasound probe according to claim 1, characterized in that: and the shell is provided with a control switch for executing manual control of the working state of the side array element array.

3. An ultrasound probe according to claim 1, characterized in that: the array element wafer material of the central array element array is one of a piezoelectric ceramic material, a piezoelectric ceramic composite material, a capacitive micro-electromechanical ultrasonic sensor chip or a piezoelectric ceramic micro-electromechanical ultrasonic sensor chip; the array element wafer material of the side array element array is one of a piezoelectric ceramic material, a piezoelectric ceramic composite material, a piezoelectric ceramic single crystal material, a capacitive micro-electro-mechanical ultrasonic sensor chip or a piezoelectric ceramic micro-electro-mechanical ultrasonic sensor chip.

4. An ultrasound probe according to claim 1, characterized in that: the probe is a high-frequency linear array probe or a convex array probe.

5. An ultrasound probe according to claim 1, characterized in that: and a space is reserved between the central array element array and the side array element array.

6. An ultrasound probe according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein: and two sides of the central array element array are respectively provided with a side array element array, and the side array element arrays are obliquely arranged relative to the central array element array to form an outward opening angle.

7. An ultrasound probe according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein: the number of the array elements of the side array element array is the same as that of the array elements of the central array element array.

8. An ultrasound probe according to claim 7, wherein: the array element spacing of the side array element array is the same as the array element spacing of the central array element array.

9. An ultrasound probe according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein: the height of the array elements in the side array element array is not more than that of the array elements in the central array element array.

10. An ultrasound probe according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein: only the end of the central array element array is covered by an acoustic lens; or: the ends of the central array element array and the side array element array are covered by the acoustic lens.