JP2000217819A - Ultrasonic probe manufacture, ultrasonic probe, and ultrasonic imaging device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the outer diameter of a connection cable per number of channels by forming a cable by a signal conductor constituted by a twisted pair electric wire. SOLUTION: A cable 22 is formd by bundling plural twisted pair electric wires 114 with a coating member. The twisted pair electric wires 114 are formed by twisting two electric wires made by polyurethane wire at a designated space and molding the same in an insulating coating to have a circular section as a whole. Two electric wires of polyurethane are made different in color, so that the individual wires can be discriminated. The insulating coating is formed of a soft plastic insulating material such as polymer or the like. By this arrangement, when the diameter of the wire is the same as that of a coaxial cable center conductor, the outside diameter of the insulating coating can be reduced to the half of the coaxial cable outside diameter. Accordingly, the wire is easy to be bent so as to facilitate handling.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe manufacturing method, an ultrasonic probe, and an ultrasonic imaging apparatus, and more particularly, to an ultrasonic probe body having an ultrasonic transducer array and a connector.
tor) and a cable (cabl) having a plurality of signal lines.
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe manufacturing method to be connected in e), an ultrasonic probe manufactured by the method, and an ultrasonic imaging apparatus provided with such an ultrasonic probe.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ultrasonic probe of an ultrasonic imaging apparatus has an array of ultrasonic transducers. Ultrasound probes also
A connection cable for connecting to the ultrasonic imaging apparatus main body, and a channel (channel) corresponding to each ultrasonic transducer in the array is provided by an individual signal line in the connection cable; And receives a drive signal for transmitting ultrasonic waves from an electric circuit on the main body side, and inputs an echo received signal to the electric circuit on the main body side.

In such an ultrasonic probe, a connection cable is used in which individual signal lines are formed of coaxial cables, and the shield function prevents mutual interference with the outside and mutual interference between signal lines. I try to prevent it. The number of coaxial cables in the connection cable corresponds to the number of channels of the ultrasonic transducer array. For example, a 256-channel ultrasonic transducer uses a connection cable having at least 256 coaxial cables.

[0004]

In the connection cables as described above, the individual coaxial cables used are as small as possible in outer diameter. However, for example, electrical cables such as characteristic impedance and mechanical properties such as tensile strength are used. Due to the restrictions described above, the diameter of each coaxial cable is limited to 0.08 mm for the center conductor and 0.7 mm for the outer diameter of the cable. For this reason, the connection cable for multi-channels such as, for example, 256 channels has a problem that the outer diameter exceeds 12 mm, the bendability is impaired, and the handling of the ultrasonic probe becomes inconvenient. In addition, there is a problem that it is difficult to increase the number of channels of the ultrasonic probe.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide an ultrasonic probe having a small outer diameter of a connecting cable per number of channels, a method of manufacturing such an ultrasonic probe, And an ultrasonic imaging apparatus having such an ultrasonic probe.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems (1) According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an ultrasonic probe for connecting an ultrasonic probe main body having an ultrasonic transducer array and a connector with a cable having a plurality of signal lines. An ultrasonic probe manufacturing method, wherein the signal line is formed of a twisted pair electric wire as the cable.

(2) A second aspect of the present invention for solving the above problems includes an ultrasonic probe main body having an ultrasonic transducer array, a connector, and a plurality of signal lines connecting the ultrasonic probe main body and the connector. An ultrasonic probe comprising a cable, wherein the cable is configured such that the signal line is formed of a twisted pair electric wire.

(3) A third invention for solving the above problems is an ultrasonic imaging apparatus which transmits an ultrasonic wave by an ultrasonic probe, receives an echo, and generates an image based on the echo reception signal. (2)
An ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprising the ultrasonic probe described in (1).

(Operation) In the present invention, since the signal line in the cable is a twisted pair electric wire that can be easily thinned, the outer diameter of the cable per number of channels can be reduced. Therefore, when the number of channels is equal to the conventional one, the cable becomes thinner and easily bent, and when the conventional cable is hardly bent, the number of channels can be increased.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiment. FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of the ultrasonic probe. This probe is an example of an embodiment of the ultrasonic probe of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the present probe connects one end of a cable 22 to a probe body 20 and
A connector 24 is connected to the other end of 2.
The cable 22 has a plurality of twisted pairs (twist p).
air) wire bundled with a covering member (bundl)
e). The connector 24 is connected to a connector receiver provided on an ultrasonic imaging apparatus main body (not shown) when the probe is used. The probe main body 20 is an example of an embodiment of the ultrasonic probe main body in the present invention. The cable 22 is an example of an embodiment of the cable according to the present invention. The connector 24 is an example of an embodiment of the connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of a main part of the probe main body 20. As shown in FIG.
It has an ultrasonic transducer array 300. The ultrasonic transducer array 300 is an example of an embodiment of the ultrasonic transducer array according to the present invention.
The ultrasonic transducer array 300 is represented by x in the figure.
It is constituted by a plurality of (for example, 256) ultrasonic transducers 302 arranged in the direction. It should be noted that the signing of the ultrasonic transducer is represented in one place. The ultrasonic transducer 302 is made of, for example, a piezoelectric material such as PZT (lead zirconate titanate (Zr) (Zr) oxide (Pb) ceramics).

The ultrasonic transducer 302 is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape (so-called strip shape), and its three ridges respectively correspond to three directions x, y, and z perpendicular to each other in the figure. The length of the hinge is relatively longest in the y direction, second in the z direction, and relatively shortest in the x direction. The direction of polarization of the piezoelectric material is the z direction. The ultrasonic transducer 302 has both end faces facing each other in the z direction covered with electrode layers (not shown).

The ultrasonic transducer array 300 includes:
For example, it is formed on a film 502 made of a plastics polymer such as polyimide. The thickness of the film 502 is exaggerated. The same applies to the other films described below.

[0015] The film 502 has a plurality of electrical paths 504 corresponding to the plurality of ultrasonic transducers 302. Note that the signing of the electric path is represented by one place.
The electric path 504 is configured by a print (print) circuit or the like. One electrode (the lower electrode in the figure) of the ultrasonic transducer 302 is electrically connected to the electric path 504. This electrode becomes the active electrode of the ultrasonic transducer 302. For the electrical connection, for example, a conductive adhesive or the like is used.

The other electrode (upper electrode in the figure) of the ultrasonic transducer 302 is covered with a film 506 made of plastic such as polyimide.
The side of the film 506 in contact with the electrode of the ultrasonic transducer 302 is a conductive surface made of a metal layer, and is electrically connected to each electrode. For the electrical connection, for example, a conductive adhesive or the like is used. The electrode covered with the film 506 is connected to the common (c) of the ultrasonic transducer 302.
ommon) electrodes. It is needless to say that the film 506 may have the same electric path as the film 502.

An acoustic matching member 510 is adhered to the upper side of the film 506 in the figure. Acoustic matching member 510
Is to match acoustic impedance (impedance) between the ultrasonic transducer 302 and the object to be imaged, and a plastic material or glass material having an appropriate acoustic impedance between them is used.

An acoustic lens (lens) 512 is adhered to the upper side of the acoustic matching member 510 in the figure. The acoustic lens 512 is made of, for example, silicon rubber (silicon rubber).
gu) and the like, and is configured as a cylindrical lens having a longitudinal direction in the x direction.

A backing member 702 is in contact with the film 502 on the side opposite to the side in contact with the ultrasonic transducer array 300. The backing member 702 is made of an appropriate sound absorbing material such as rubber containing metal powder. The backing member 702 and the film 502 are bonded by an adhesive.

[0020] Film 502 extends along one side of backing member 702, and film 506 extends along the opposite side. The insulating film 5 that prevents the conductive surface of the film 506 from contacting the side surface of the ultrasonic transducer 302 is provided on the side where the film 506 extends.
08 is adhered. Electric wires are connected to the electric paths 504 and the conductive surfaces of the films 502 and 506 as described later.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of a main part of the connector 24. As shown in FIG.
02. The contact body 902 comes into contact with a contact portion on the other side when the connector 24 is connected to a connector receiver (not shown). The contact body 902 is formed in a plate shape from an electrically insulating material such as plastic. Contact body 902
Assuming that the thickness direction is the y-direction, the contact body 902 is approximately x
It has two contact surfaces parallel to the z-plane. These contact surfaces are inclined so that the thickness at one end in the z-direction is gradually reduced for convenience of pushing into the connector receiver.

On the contact surface of the contact body 902, a plurality of electric paths 904 extending in the z direction are arranged in the x direction. Note that the signing of the electric path 904 is represented by one place.
The electric path 904 is formed by molding (molding) a plurality of conductors made of, for example, copper strips on the contact body 902. An electric path 906 is provided on the bottom surface in the figure of the contact body 902 over the entire length in the x direction. The electric path 906 is connected to a predetermined one of the plurality of electric paths 904. Electrical path 904 and electrical path 9
An electric wire is connected to 06 as described later.

Next, a method for manufacturing the present probe will be described. FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of an example of the manufacturing process. This manufacturing process represents an example of an embodiment of the method of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, in step 402, a backing member, a film and a piezoelectric plate are laminated (l).
aminate). That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the film 502 is overlaid and adhered on the backing member 702, and the piezoelectric plate 300 'is overlaid and adhered thereon.
The film 502 has the electric path 504 already provided in a pre-process not shown. The piezoelectric plate 300 'has electrode layers provided on both surfaces in a pre-process not shown.

Next, in step 406, dicing of the piezoelectric plate 300 'is performed. In this step, the structure laminated as described above is subjected to a dicing machine (di).
ing machine) and the piezoelectric plate 300 ′
Is diced at a predetermined pitch to form an ultrasonic transducer array 300 in which the ultrasonic transducers 302 are individually separated as shown in FIG.

Next, in step 408, the film, the acoustic matching member, and the acoustic lens are laminated. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the film 506 is superposed and adhered on the ultrasonic transducer array 300, the acoustic matching member 510 is superimposed and adhered thereon, and the acoustic lens is further superimposed and adhered thereon. . An insulating film 508 is sandwiched between the side of the ultrasonic transducer array 300 and the backing member 702 where the film 506 extends.

Next, electric wiring is performed in step 412. The electric wire connection in this step will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. In both figures, the same components as those shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

As shown in the figure, the electric wiring is a work of connecting the electric path on the probe body 20 side and the corresponding electric path on the connector 24 side by the individual twisted pair electric wires 114 in the cable 22. The numbering of the twisted pair wires is represented in one place. Twisted pair wire 114
Is an example of an embodiment of a signal line in the present invention.

The twisted pair electric wire 114 is obtained by twisting two mutually insulated electric wires. One of the twisted pair wires has one end connected to the electrical path 50.
4 and the other end to the electrical path 904. The other wire of the twisted pair wire is connected at both ends to the conductive surface of the film 506 wrapping around to the end face of the backing member 702 and the electric path 906 provided on the end face of the contact body 902. The connection is made, for example, by soldering or any other suitable conventional technique.

FIG. 9 shows a cross section of a specific example of the twisted pair electric wire. As shown in the drawing, two electric wires 116 and 118 made of, for example, polyurethane (polyurethane) wire or the like are twisted at predetermined intervals and molded in an insulating coating 120 to form a circular cross section as a whole. I have. The two electric wires 116 and 118 can be distinguished from each other by making the color of the polyurethane coating different. The insulating coating 120 is made of a flexible plastic insulating material such as a polymer.

In such a twisted pair electric wire, the electric wire 1
When the diameter of 16, 118 is 0.08 mm, which is the same as the center conductor of the above-mentioned coaxial cable, the outer diameter of the insulating coating 120 is 0.3 mm, and the outer diameter of the coaxial cable is 0.7 mm.
Less than half. Therefore, the twisted pair electric wire 114
The outer diameter of the cable 22 in which 256 bundles are bundled is 5 mm, and it is easy to bend sufficiently and handling becomes convenient.

That is, since the outer diameter of the cable per number of channels is reduced, if the number of channels is made equal to the conventional one, the cable can be bent more easily.
When the difficulty in bending is allowed up to the conventional level, a cable having a larger number of channels can be used. For example,
When the bending resistance of the cable 22 can be tolerated to the same level as a cable having an outer diameter of 12 mm in which 256 coaxial cables are bundled, for example, a cable in which 512 or more twisted pair electric wires are bundled can be used.
Thereby, it is possible to cope with further multi-channeling of the ultrasonic transducer array in the probe body 20.

The twisted pair electric wire 114 is composed of an electric wire 116,
Since the cables 118 are twisted, mutual interference with the outside of the cable 22 is sufficiently small. The mutual interference between the twisted pair wires 114, that is, the mutual interference between the channels is larger than that in the case of the coaxial cable, but is within an allowable range.

Also, since the characteristic impedance is as high as 140 to 200 ohms compared to 50 to 100 ohms of the coaxial cable, it is necessary to reduce the element size to achieve impedance matching with an ultrasonic transducer having a generally high internal impedance. It is advantageous.

Step 41 is performed on the connected body after the electric wiring.
At 4, a case is attached to both ends to form an ultrasonic probe as shown in FIG. 1. In attaching the cases, it is needless to say that both ends of the cable 22 are clamped to the respective cases by appropriate clamp means.

FIG. 10 shows a block (block) of an ultrasonic imaging apparatus equipped with the ultrasonic probe constructed as described above.
k) Show the figure. This apparatus is an example of an embodiment of the ultrasonic imaging apparatus according to the present invention. The configuration of the present apparatus shows an example of an embodiment relating to the apparatus of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the present apparatus has an ultrasonic probe 2. The ultrasonic probe 2 is an example of an embodiment of the ultrasonic probe according to the present invention. The ultrasonic probe 2 is manufactured as described above. The ultrasonic probe 2 is used for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves while being in contact with the subject 4.

The ultrasonic probe 2 is connected to the transmission / reception unit 6. The transmission / reception unit 6 drives the ultrasonic transducer array 300 of the ultrasonic probe 2 to drive the ultrasonic beam (b
eam), and receives the echoes received by the ultrasonic transducer array 300.

The azimuth of the transmitted ultrasonic beam is determined by the transmission aperture (ap) in the ultrasonic transducer array 300.
individual ultrasonic transducer 30 in the
2 can be set by the time difference for driving, and by sequentially switching the azimuth, the sound ray sequential scanning can be performed.

The direction of the echo reception can be set by the time difference for adding the reception signals of the individual ultrasonic transducers 302 in the reception aperture of the ultrasonic transducer array 300. Scanning of received waves can be performed sequentially.

As a result, the transmission / reception unit 6 can operate, for example, as shown in FIG.
The scanning as shown in FIG. That is, the ultrasonic beam (sound ray) 202 extending from the radiation point 200 in the z-direction
The dimension area 206 is scanned in the θ direction, and a so-called sector scan is performed.

When apertures for transmitting and receiving waves are formed by using a part of the ultrasonic transducer array 300, the apertures are sequentially moved along the array to perform a scan as shown in FIG. 12, for example. be able to. That is, when the sound ray 202 emitted from the radiation point 200 in the z-direction moves on the straight line 204, the rectangular two-dimensional area 206 is scanned in the x-direction, and a so-called linear scan is performed.

The ultrasonic transducer array 30
0 is a so-called convex array formed along an arc extending in the ultrasonic wave transmission direction.
In the case of (ray), the radiation point 200 of the sound ray 202 moves on the circular arc 204 by the signal operation similar to the linear scan, for example, as shown in FIG. Needless to say, the scanning is performed in the direction, so-called convex scanning is performed.

The transmission / reception unit 6 includes a data (data) processing unit 8
It is connected to the. In the data processing unit 8, the echo reception signal from the transmission / reception unit 6 is converted into digital data (digital
ldata). The data processing unit 8 processes input echo data to generate an image and the like.

The data processing unit 8, as shown in FIG.
The system includes a data processor (processor) 80, an echo memory 82, a data memory 84, and an image memory 86. These are connected by a bus (bus) 88. The echo data input from the transmission / reception unit 6 is stored in the echo memory 82. The data processor 80 generates, for example, a B-mode image based on the echo data. The generated B-mode image and the like are stored in the image memory 86.

The data processor 80 also performs the Doppler shift of the echo (Doppler shift) by the data processing.
shift), and dynamic information such as a blood flow velocity is obtained based on the extracted information. The data memory 84 is used in the course of this data processing. An image or the like for displaying the obtained dynamic information is stored in the image memory 86.

The display section 10 is connected to the data processing section 8. The display unit 10 is configured using, for example, a graphic display or the like, and displays a visible image based on image data input from the image memory 86 of the data processing unit 8.

The transmitting / receiving unit 6, the data processing unit 8 and the display unit 10 are connected to the control unit 12. Control unit 12
Is to provide a control signal to each of these parts to control the operation. Further, a state notification signal, a response signal, and the like are transmitted from the controlled units to the control unit 12. Ultrasonic imaging is performed under the control of the control unit 12.

An operation unit 14 is connected to the control unit 12. The operation unit 14 is operated by an operator, and the control unit 12
A desired command or information is input to the device. The operation unit 14 includes, for example, an operation panel (panel) including a keyboard and other operation tools.

[0050]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, an ultrasonic probe having a small outer diameter of a connecting cable per number of channels, a method of manufacturing such an ultrasonic probe, and a method of manufacturing such an ultrasonic probe. It is possible to realize an ultrasonic imaging apparatus equipped with an ultrasonic probe.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an ultrasonic probe according to an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a main part of a probe main body of the ultrasonic probe shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a main part of a connector of the ultrasonic probe shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a manufacturing process of the ultrasonic probe shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a state in a manufacturing process of the probe main body shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a state in a manufacturing process of the probe main body shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing a state in a manufacturing process of the probe main body shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing a state in a manufacturing process of the probe main body shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a twisted pair electric wire.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

11 is a conceptual diagram of sound ray scanning by the device shown in FIG.

12 is a conceptual diagram of sound ray scanning by the device shown in FIG.

13 is a conceptual diagram of sound ray scanning by the device shown in FIG.

14 is a block diagram of a data processing unit in the device shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 20 probe body 22 cable 24 connector 300 ultrasonic transducer array 302 ultrasonic transducer 502 film 504 electric path 506 film 508 insulating film 510 acoustic matching member 512 acoustic lens 114 twisted pair electric wire 116, 118 electric wire 120 insulating coating 2 ultrasonic probe 4 subject 6 transmitting / receiving unit 8 data processing unit 10 display unit 12 control unit 14 operation unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic probe manufacturing method for connecting an ultrasonic probe main body having an ultrasonic transducer array and a connector with a cable having a plurality of signal lines, wherein the signal line is formed of a twisted pair electric wire as the cable. A method for manufacturing an ultrasonic probe, comprising: 2. An ultrasonic probe comprising: an ultrasonic probe main body having an ultrasonic transducer array; a connector; and a cable having a plurality of signal lines connecting the ultrasonic probe main body and the connector. The ultrasonic probe according to claim 1, wherein the signal line includes a twisted pair electric wire. 3. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus for transmitting an ultrasonic wave by an ultrasonic probe, receiving an echo, and generating an image based on the echo reception signal, wherein the ultrasonic probe is used as the ultrasonic probe. An ultrasonic imaging apparatus, comprising: an ultrasonic probe according to claim 1.