JP3277013B2 - Ultrasonic probe device and manufacturing method thereof - 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 probe used for an ultrasonic imaging apparatus such as an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an array type ultrasonic probe device having a plurality of ultrasonic vibrating elements arranged, a means for extracting an electrode from the ultrasonic vibrating element is provided on the back or front surface of the ultrasonic vibrating element. In general, a configuration in which an electrode and a flexible printed board (FPC) are connected to each other and pulled out to the side surfaces of the arranged plurality of ultrasonic vibration elements is generally adopted.

Referring to FIG. 9, a conventional array-type ultrasonic probe device in which ultrasonic vibration elements are one-dimensionally arranged on a backing material will be described. That is, the ultrasonic probe device includes an ultrasonic vibration element 10, an earth electrode 11 and a drive electrode 12, an acoustic matching layer 13, flexible printed boards (FPCs) 14, 15, a backing material 16,
And a filler 17. That is, the ultrasonic vibration element 10
In order to apply a drive voltage between the ground electrode 11 provided on the ultrasonic wave emitting surface and the drive electrode 12 provided on the back surface, a flexible printed circuit (FPC) 1
4 and 15 are connected and the FPCs 14 and 15 are arranged on the side surface of the backing material 16, and the wiring patterns of the FPCs 14 and 15 are used as lead-out leads. Thereby, an independent drive voltage can be applied to each of the ultrasonic vibration elements.

Further, referring to FIG. 10, an ultrasonic probe device and a method of manufacturing the same will be described in more detail. That is,
An ultrasonic vibration element 10 in which an electroacoustic conversion material such as a piezoelectric material is formed in a plate shape is prepared (a), and an ultrasonic radiation surface of the ultrasonic vibration element 10 is formed on the upper surface and the side and lower surfaces by vapor deposition or the like. The ground electrode 11 and the drive electrode 12 are formed by a thin film forming method (b). Thereby, the element with electrode 10A is formed. An acoustic matching material 13 such as a resin is formed on the upper surface of the element with electrode 10A by coating or the like (c). The acoustic matching material 13A is machined by shaving, and the acoustic matching layer 1 is formed.
Form 3 As a result, an ultrasonic vibrating body 10B including the ultrasonic vibrating element 10, the electrodes 11, 12 and the acoustic matching layer 13 in which the dimensions of the lower surface of the electrode-attached element 10A and the upper surface of the acoustic matching layer 13 are defined is formed. (D).

Next, after applying a bonding material such as an adhesive to the lower surface of the ultrasonic vibrating body 10B, the FPCs 14 and 15 on which the wiring patterns are formed are placed and pressed against the backing material 16 (e, f). . Next, a plurality of grooves 17A are formed on the upper surface of the ultrasonic vibrator 10B (g). The groove 17A is filled with the filler 17 (h). Thereby, the main part of the ultrasonic probe device is completed. In this case, FPC14,1
5 according to the mode of the wiring pattern and the mode of forming the groove 17A.
The ultrasonic vibrating body 10B has a plurality of arrayed vibrating elements formed thereon.

[0006]

However, in the conventional ultrasonic probe device, since the FPCs 14, 15 connected to the electrodes 11, 12 are arranged on the side of the array type ultrasonic probe device, the ultrasonic vibration element The area occupied by the ultrasonic vibration element becomes larger than the effective area (the area facing the drive electrode 11 and the ground electrode 12), and the space efficiency is poor. Therefore, when the outer dimensions of the ultrasonic probe device are restricted, the area of the effective area cannot be increased. Further, in the conventional electrode extracting means, the arrangement of the ultrasonic vibration elements is limited to only one dimension, and it is impossible to extract the electrodes of the ultrasonic probe device having the two-dimensional arrangement.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an ultrasonic probe device capable of reducing the area occupied by an ultrasonic vibrator and enabling a two-dimensional array of ultrasonic vibrating elements, and a method of manufacturing the same. It is in.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, an ultrasonic probe device according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises an ultrasonic vibrator and a backing material disposed on the back of the ultrasonic vibrator. The plunger end is connected to the ultrasonic vibrator.
Contact and the barrel penetrates the backing material
And a contact probe fitted into the backing material .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing an ultrasonic probe device, comprising the steps of: forming an ultrasonic vibrator;
The plunger end contacts the ultrasonic vibrator and
So that the tool penetrates the backing material
Fitting the probe into the backing material;
Disposing the backing material on the back surface of the ultrasonic vibrator so that the jar end contacts the ultrasonic vibrator.

[0010]

According to the ultrasonic probe device of the present invention, a contact mechanism using a contact probe penetrating a backing material is provided.
Can finely polarize the ultrasonic vibrator,
It is possible to reduce the area occupied by the ultrasonic vibrator
In both cases, a two-dimensional array of ultrasonic transducers becomes possible. Of the present invention
Backing according to the ultrasonic probe device manufacturing method
Insert the contact probe into the material and
Just place the backing material on the back of the ultrasonic vibrator,
A highly polarized ultrasonic vibrator can be obtained and
Obtaining an ultrasonic probe device with a two-dimensional array of acoustic transducers
be able to.

[0011]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The ultrasonic probe device of the present embodiment is manufactured by the steps shown in FIG. In this embodiment, as a conventional example, steps (a) to (d) in the manufacturing process shown in FIG. 9 are substantially the same as the conventional example, and the steps after the step (e) are different from the conventional example. It is characteristic. First, the most different steps (e) and (f) will be described. That is, the ultrasonic vibrating body 10B has been manufactured by the step (d). Then, in step (e), a through hole 19A is provided at a predetermined position of the backing material 18, and a member in which the contact probe 19 is fitted into the through hole 19A is formed. Next, in step (e), the backing material 18 is pressure-bonded to the ultrasonic vibrator 10B so that the tip of the contact probe 19 abuts on the drive electrode provided on the ultrasonic vibrator 10B. . In this case, an adhesive should be applied to the joint surface between the ultrasonic vibrator 10B and the backing material 18. Thereafter, steps (g) and (f) are performed, and the main part of the ultrasonic probe device of the present embodiment is manufactured. in this case,
In the step (g), the groove 17B extends beyond the electrode 12,
The depth is set to slightly enter the backing material 18. In the step (h), the filler 17 is filled in the groove 17B having a depth slightly beyond the electrode 12 and into the backing material 18.

Next, main members in the ultrasonic probe device of the present embodiment will be described. 2 and 3 show an embodiment of the backing material 18 for using the contact probe 19 as an electrode lead of a one-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe device. The backing material 18 has a two-layer structure, and the upper layer uses the same ferrite rubber 18A as the conventional backing material, and the lower layer has a phenol resin (bakelite) 1 having small stress and thermal deformation.
8B is used. A through-hole as shown in the figure is formed in the two-layered backing material 18, and the contact probe 19 is moved below the surface of the backing material 18 when the tip plunger is exposed to the surface and pressure is applied to the tip. The barrel is fixed to and adhered to a bakelite 18B in the lower layer of the backing material 18.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of the contact probe 19 used in this embodiment. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the contact probe 19 has a plunger 19A that directly contacts an object, and a spring 19 that has a function to slide when pressure is applied to the plunger 19A.
B, a barrel 19C that is in electrical contact with the outer wall of the plunger 19A. One row of the contact probes 19 is used as a ground electrode lead, and the other row is used as a drive electrode lead. Since the backing member 18 has a two-layer structure, the acoustic characteristics are the same as those of the related art, and each contact probe 19 is in such a position as to be in contact with each electrode of the ultrasonic vibration element formed by the ultrasonic vibration body 10B. Accuracy can be ensured, and it can be used as an electrode lead of an array type ultrasonic probe device. An extension lead should be connected to the contact probe 19 in advance. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a main part of the ultrasonic probe device of the present embodiment.

As described above, the contact probe 19 shown in FIG. 4 is connected to the ground electrode or drive electrode of each ultrasonic vibration element, and is connected between the extension leads connected to the respective ground electrode / drive electrode contact probes (not shown). By applying a drive voltage to each of the above, it is possible to independently drive each ultrasonic vibration element. In the present embodiment, since the electrode lead leads penetrate through the inside of the backing material 18, the area occupied by the ultrasonic vibration element can be reduced.

In this embodiment, the lead-out leads of both the ground electrode and the drive electrode are subjected to the point contact structure. One of the lead-out leads has the same structure as the conventional lead-out lead using the FPC. It is also possible. Also,
Depending on the array shape and the shape of the through holes, the positions of the through holes in the backing material can be scattered over the entire surface of the backing material.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show the configuration of an embodiment of a backing material for using a contact probe as an electrode lead of a two-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe apparatus. Backing material 20 for two-dimensional array
2 is basically the same as the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, but in this embodiment, the contact probe 19 is used only as a lead for driving electrode. Backing material 20
Is a two-layer structure in which the upper layer is a ferrite rubber 20A and the lower layer is a phenol resin (bakelite) 20B. FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of a two-dimensional array ultrasonic probe using the backing material 20 for the two-dimensional array shown in FIGS.

This embodiment is manufactured by the following manufacturing procedure. That is, the ultrasonic vibrator 10B is prepared, and FIG.
Then, pressure is applied to the backing material 20 shown in FIG. At this time, the contact probe 19 and the drive electrode are electrically connected by contact. Thereafter, a part of the ultrasonic vibrator 10B and a part of the backing material 20 are cut in two directions to form an arrayed vibrating element.

Next, after filling the cutting groove 17A with the filler 17, a thin film Au is formed on the entire surface, so that the ground electrodes of the respective arrays are commonly connected to form a common electrode. An electrode lead is led out from the common electrode. Further, after the acoustic matching layer is formed on the common electrode, only the acoustic matching layer is cut so as not to separate the common electrode, and then a gap (groove) of the acoustic matching layer is filled with a filler.

As described above, the contact probe 19 shown in FIG. 4 is connected to the ground electrode or the drive electrode of each ultrasonic vibration element formed by the groove, and is connected to the contact probe 19 for each earth electrode and drive electrode (not shown). By applying a drive voltage between the connected extension leads, it becomes possible to independently drive the ultrasonic vibration elements of the two-dimensional array.

In the present embodiment, the two-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe device, which was impossible with the conventional electrode extracting means, can be manufactured only by changing the backing material.
Also, the manufacturing method can be realized with a small change from the conventional method.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be implemented in various modifications without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, contact probe 19
Instead, a connector mechanism capable of making point contact with the electrode of the ultrasonic vibrating body 10B can be used, or a member having contact points arranged on the FPC can be used. Of course, without being limited to the steps shown in FIG. 1, various manufacturing steps in which a point contact type lead member is appropriately arranged on the ultrasonic vibrating body 10B can be adopted.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an array-type ultrasonic probe device having a small external shape, a relatively large effective area, and capable of forming a two-dimensional array, and a method of manufacturing the same. It is.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of an ultrasonic probe device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a backing material in the ultrasonic probe device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a cross section and a plane of a contact probe as viewed in a front direction.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a one-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a backing material in an ultrasonic probe device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line VII-VII in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a two-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a conventional one-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe device.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of a conventional one-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe device in a process order.

[Explanation of symbols]

10B: ultrasonic vibrating body, 10: ultrasonic vibrating element, 11,
12: electrode, 13: acoustic matching layer, 17: filler, 18,
Reference numeral 20: backing material, 18A, 20A: ferrite rubber, 18A, 20B: phenolic resin (bakelite), 19: contact probe.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61B 8/00-8/15 H04R 17/00 G01N 29/24

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ultrasonic vibrator, a backing material disposed on a back surface of the ultrasonic vibrator, and a plunger end which is located in front of the ultrasonic vibrator.
The backing material contacts the ultrasonic vibrator and the barrel is
Contour inserted into the backing material so as to penetrate
An ultrasonic probe device comprising: Wherein the steps of forming an ultrasound vibrator, plug the backing material should be disposed on a back surface of the ultrasonic vibrator
The end of the jar contacts the ultrasonic vibrator and the barrel
A contact probe penetrating the backing material
Fitting the backing material into the backing material;
Arranging the backing material on the back surface of the ultrasonic vibrating body such that an end thereof contacts the ultrasonic vibrating body.