JP3064675B2 - Ultrasound diagnostic equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and more particularly to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus provided with a probe connecting device for connecting a transmitting probe and a receiving probe each having a plurality of transducers. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus used in the medical field, for example, tomographic data of a heart part is displayed on a monitor in real time in a B mode, and a blood flow velocity is measured in a pulse Doppler mode or a continuous wave Doppler mode. Measurement and display of this distribution on a monitor are also performed.

In the continuous wave Doppler mode (hereinafter referred to as CW mode), a probe connected to the diagnostic apparatus main body by one connector is divided into a transmitting probe and a receiving probe and connected. , And transmission and reception are performed simultaneously and continuously. In the CW Doppler mode, unlike the B mode or the pulse Doppler mode, transmission and reception are performed simultaneously, so that electrostatic coupling and electromagnetic coupling between the transmission terminal and the reception terminal in the connector pose a problem. The electrostatic coupling occurs when the transmitting terminal and the receiving terminal are coupled by capacitance. When the electrostatic coupling occurs, the transmission signal leaks from the transmission terminal to the reception terminal, and the signal cannot be received normally. Also,
Electromagnetic coupling is a phenomenon in which when a certain current loop is generated, a current is generated in another closed loop. As the area of the current loop increases, the electromagnetic coupling increases.

In order to suppress these couplings, conventionally, in a connector, as shown in FIG. 5, a terminal group 31 for transmitting and a terminal group 32 for receiving are each surrounded by a GND terminal 33. ing. As a result, most of the leakage of the transmission signal falls to the GND terminal 33, and leakage to the reception terminal is reduced. In addition, each terminal group 31, 32 is surrounded by a shield 34 as shown in FIG.

In the above-mentioned conventional configuration in which each terminal group is surrounded by GND terminals, a large number of GND terminals are required around the transmitting terminal group or the receiving terminal group. The number of GND terminals increases dramatically. For this reason, the number of terminals as a whole in which the GND terminal is added to the transmitting / receiving terminal group connected to each transducer increases, and the connector becomes large.

Further, in the above-described conventional configuration in which each terminal group is surrounded by a shield, there is a problem that it is difficult to process the shield. An object of the present invention is to suppress the coupling between a transmitting terminal group and a receiving terminal group with a small number of terminals even if the number of vibrators increases.

[0007]

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention has a probe connecting device for connecting a transmitting probe and a receiving probe each having a plurality of transducers. The probe connection device includes a transmitting terminal group and a receiving terminal group. The transmitting terminal group is adjacent to the first and second common terminals disposed at one diagonal vertex of the rectangle and the first and second signal terminals disposed at the other diagonal vertex of the rectangle. A third terminal and a fourth signal terminal are disposed so as to face each other on a pair of lines connecting the common terminal and the signal terminal, and the common terminal is connected to a pair of adjacent signal terminals via each transducer. The possible terminal groups are arranged side by side in the direction in which the two terminals are arranged. The receiving terminal group is composed of a unit terminal group, a signal terminal adjacent to a common terminal of the transmitting terminal group in the same direction as the direction of juxtaposition of the transmitting terminal group, and a signal terminal thereof common to the transmitting terminal group. It is juxtaposed to be adjacent to.

[0008]

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, the signal terminal and the common terminal are arranged side by side in the transmitting terminal group and the receiving terminal group of the probe connecting device. There is always a common terminal at the boundary of. For this reason, the leakage of the transmission signal is grounded via the common terminal, and the electrostatic coupling between the transmission terminal group and the reception terminal group hardly occurs.

In the transmitting terminal group and the receiving terminal group, a common terminal can be connected to a pair of adjacent signal terminals via a vibrator, and each signal terminal is connected to an adjacent common terminal. Is connected, the area of the loop formed by the common terminal and the signal terminal is reduced, thereby reducing the electromagnetic coupling between the transmitting terminal group and the receiving terminal group. Here, the number of common terminals is half the number of signal terminals,
Even if the number of vibrators increases, the electrostatic coupling and the electromagnetic coupling between the transmitting terminal group and the receiving terminal group can be suppressed with a small number of terminals.

[0010]

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, probe 1
Is for an electronic scanner and has a plurality of transducers. The probe 1 performs transmission and reception separately in the B mode, and includes a plurality of transmission oscillators 1a in the CW mode.
And the wave receiving oscillator 1b, so that wave transmission and wave reception can be performed simultaneously. In the CW mode, the transmitting oscillator 1a is connected to the transmitting circuit 3 via the probe connecting device 2.
Is connected to Further, the wave receiving vibrator 1 b is connected to the wave receiving circuit 4 via the probe connection device 2. The probe connection device 2 includes a connector 2a having a large number of pins connected to the end of a cord extending from the probe 1, and a receptacle 2b disposed on the diagnostic device main body and capable of being electrically connected to the pins. ing.

The transmitting circuit 3 includes a high-frequency pulse driving circuit for driving the vibrator. The receiving circuit 4 includes a receiver for receiving a reflected echo, a delay circuit for performing electronic scanning, a delay amount selecting circuit, and the like. The transmitting circuit 3 includes an oscillator (OS) for generating a reference wave signal serving as a reference.
C) 5 is connected. A mixer 6 and a tomographic signal processing circuit 7 are connected to the receiving circuit 4. The tomographic signal processing circuit 7 is for creating tomographic image information by reflection echo. The transmitter 6 is connected to the mixer 6, and performs orthogonal detection of the reflected echo received by the receiving circuit 4 using the reference signal.

A band pass filter 8 is also connected to the mixer 6. The band-pass filter 8 is a low-pass filter that removes the sum frequency of the sum and difference frequencies obtained by the mixer 6 and obtains a Doppler signal. A frequency analysis circuit 9 is connected to the bandpass filter 8. The frequency analysis circuit 9 analyzes a frequency component of the Doppler signal obtained by the band pass filter 8. Thereby, the velocity distribution of the blood flow is obtained. The DSC 10 is connected to the frequency analysis circuit 9. This DS
The tomographic signal processing circuit 7 is also connected to C10. D
The SC 10 is for outputting information obtained in synchronization with the ultrasonic signal in synchronization with the television signal. DSC10
Is connected to a monitor 20 composed of a CRT display.

Connector 2 constituting probe connection device 2
As shown in FIG. 2, a includes a transmitting terminal group 18t and a receiving terminal group 18r. The transmitting terminal group 18t includes first and second common pins 11t and 1t arranged at one diagonal of the rectangle.
2t, first and second signal pins 13t and 14t arranged at the other diagonal vertices of the rectangle, and first and second common pins 11
t, 12t and the third and fourth signal pins 15t, 16t arranged between the second and first signal pins 14t, 13t in the terminal unit group 17t in the direction in which the two pins 11t, 13t are arranged. (Vertical direction in the figure).

The receiving terminal group 18 includes first and second common pins 11r and 12r, and first, second, third, and fourth signal pins 13r, 14r, 15r, and 16 having the same arrangement and inverted upside down.
and a unit terminal group 17r composed of a plurality of unit terminals 17r in the same direction. The transmitting terminal group 18t and the receiving terminal group 18r
And are alternately arranged. In the transmitting terminal group 18t and the receiving terminal group 18r, the signal pins and the common pins are arranged so as to be shifted by one pin so as to be adjacent to each other. Here, loops indicated by solid lines formed by signal pins and common pins are alternately arranged at the boundary between the transmitting terminal group 18t and the receiving terminal group 18r.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of the probe connection device 2. The signal pin 16t and the signal pin 14t are connected to one end of a pair of adjacent transmitting oscillators 1a, 1a. At the other end of the adjacent transmitting oscillators 1a, 1a,
The common pin 12t is connected. Similarly, one adjacent
The signal receiving pins 13r, 1 are connected to the pair of wave receiving vibrators 1b, 1b.
5r, and the other end is connected to a common pin 11r.
Is connected. The wave transmitting oscillator 1a is connected to the wave transmitting circuit 3 and the wave receiving oscillator 1b is connected to the wave receiving circuit 4 via the receptacle 2b.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. When the power is turned on, the reference wave signal is output from the oscillator 5 to the transmission circuit 3 and the mixer 6. In the transmission circuit 3, a high-frequency pulse is oscillated based on the reference wave signal, and the oscillated pulse is transmitted through the probe connection device 2 and transmitted through each of the signal pins 13t to 16t of the transmission terminal group 18t. Child 1a
Given to. And each vibrator 1a vibrates and an ultrasonic wave is emitted. The emitted ultrasonic wave is reflected inside the body and received by the wave receiving transducer 1b. The received reflected echo signal is
The signal is supplied to the receiving circuit 4 via the signal pins 13r to 16r of the receiving terminal group 18r. The receiving circuit 4 performs amplification detection and the like, and supplies a reflected echo signal to the tomographic signal processing circuit 7 and the mixer 6. The mixer 6 performs a quadrature detection process on the reflected echo, and further removes the sum signal by the bandpass filter 8 to obtain a Doppler signal indicating a phase difference between the reflected echo and the reference wave signal. The obtained Doppler signal is supplied to the frequency analysis circuit 9, the frequency of which is analyzed, and the frequency spectrum is supplied to the DSC 10. In addition, the tomographic signal processing circuit 7
The tomographic signal (B-mode image) obtained by is also given to the DSC 10. The DSC 10 selects one of them and outputs it to the monitor 20.

Here, in the transmitting terminal group 18t, since the signal pin and the common pin are adjacent to each other, the area of the loop formed by the signal pin, each transducer 1a and the common pin is reduced. Therefore, the transmitting terminal group 18t and the receiving terminal group 18
Electromagnetic coupling with r decreases. Also, a transmission terminal group 18t
Since the loops are alternately arranged at the boundary between the receiving terminal group and the receiving terminal group 18r and do not face each other, the electromagnetic coupling is further reduced. Further, in the transmitting terminal group 18t and the receiving terminal group 18r, the signal terminals are not adjacent to each other,
Since the signal terminal and the common terminal are always arranged adjacent to each other, electrostatic coupling between the signal terminals of the transmitting terminal group 18t and the receiving terminal group 18r is reduced.

Further, since the number of common terminals is half of the number of signal terminals, even if the number of vibrators increases, it is possible to suppress electrostatic coupling and electromagnetic coupling between the transmitting terminal group and the receiving terminal group with a small number of terminals. Can be. [Other Embodiments] In the above-described embodiment, the shared type in which the transducer group of the electronic scanner is divided into two parts has been described as an example. The present invention can be applied to a probe of a composite type such as a type in which a transmitting oscillator is added to an electronic scanner or a type in which a transmitting transducer is added to an electronic scanner.

[0019]

In the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to the present invention, in the transmitting terminal group and the receiving terminal group of the probe connecting device, the respective signal terminals and common terminals are juxtaposed so as to be adjacent to each other. In addition, the electrostatic coupling between the signal terminal of the transmitting terminal group and the signal terminal of the receiving terminal group can be reduced. Further, since the common terminal and the signal terminal that can be connected thereto via the vibrator are arranged adjacent to each other in the transmitting terminal group, the area of a loop formed by the common terminal and the signal terminal is reduced, and the transmitting terminal group and Electromagnetic coupling with the receiving terminal group can be reduced. Here, since the number of common terminals is only half of the number of signal terminals, even if the number of vibrators increases, it is possible to suppress electrostatic coupling and electromagnetic coupling between the transmitting terminal group and the receiving terminal group with a small number of terminals. it can.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic diagram of an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus employing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a pin arrangement of the connector.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a connector.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a pin arrangement of a conventional connector.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a pin arrangement of a conventional connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 probe 1a oscillator for transmitting wave 1b oscillator for receiving wave 2 probe connecting device 2a connector 2b receptacle 11t, 12t first and second common pins 11r and 11r first and second common pins 13t, 14t, 15t and 16t 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Fourth signal pins 13r, 14r, 15r, 16r First, second, third, third
Fourth signal pin 17t, 17r Unit terminal group 18t Transmitting terminal group 18r Receiving terminal group

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising a probe connecting device for connecting a transmitting probe and a receiving probe each having a plurality of transducers to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, wherein one of the rectangular diagonals is provided. First and second common terminals arranged at the vertices, and first and second common terminals arranged at the other diagonal vertices of the rectangle.
A second signal terminal, and third and fourth signal terminals disposed so as to face each other on a pair of lines connecting the adjacent common terminal and the signal terminal. A transmitting terminal group in which unit terminals that can be connected via the respective vibrators are arranged side by side in the direction in which the two terminals are arranged; and a unit terminal group in which the transmitting terminal group is arranged in the same direction as the transmitting terminal group. And a receiving terminal group in which the signal terminal is adjacent to the common terminal of the transmitting terminal group, and the common terminal is arranged side by side so that the common terminal is adjacent to the signal terminal of the transmitting terminal group. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising the apparatus.