JPH11221213A - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To mitigate a multiple reflection generated in a mating standoff member in an ultrasonic probe provided with the mating standoff member for setting a focus point in the vicinity of an organism surface. SOLUTION: This ultrasonic probe 12 comprises a probe body 14 and a mating standoff member 18 removably mounted thereon. An organism contact surface 18A of the mating standoff member 18 is inclined to at least one of the longitudinal direction and the short-side direction of the probe body 14. Preferably, the organism contact surface 18A is inclined to both of those directions.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe, and more particularly, to an ultrasonic probe having a standoff member.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A stand-off member is used to set a focus point near a living body surface by separating an ultrasonic wave transmitting / receiving surface of an ultrasonic probe from a living body surface. The conventional stand-off member is formed in a rectangular parallelepiped, that is, the upper surface and the lower surface of the stand-off member are set in parallel.

However, according to the study of the present inventors, when the upper surface and the lower surface of the stand-off member are parallel as described above, there is a problem that multiple reflection is likely to remain between the living body surface.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic probe capable of effectively suppressing the problem of multiple reflection.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a probe body having an array transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, and a probe mounted on a wave transmitting / receiving surface of the probe body. Is, comprising a standoff member that propagates ultrasonic waves, with respect to the transmitting and receiving wave surface, in at least one direction of the vibrating element array direction of the array transducer and a direction orthogonal thereto,
The biological contact surface of the stand-off member is inclined.

According to the above configuration, since the standoff member has an inclined surface instead of a uniform thickness, the problem of multiple reflection as described above can be reduced. That is, for example, some ultrasonic waves are reflected on the biological contact surface of the stand-off member,
Further, even if a part of the ultrasonic wave is reflected on the transmitting / receiving surface and is repeated, the reflection point can be gradually shifted to guide the reflection point to the side. Therefore, image quality deterioration due to multiple reflection can be reduced, and disease diagnosis accuracy can be improved.

Preferably, the living body contact surface of the stand-off member is inclined in both directions of the vibrating element arrangement direction and a direction orthogonal thereto.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of an ultrasonic probe according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an external view thereof.

In the present embodiment, the ultrasonic probe 12 comprises a probe main body 14 and a stand-off member 18 detachably attached thereto. The stand-off member 18 is formed of a member having acoustic impedance equivalent to that of a living body.
Is provided in front of the probe main body 14, the focus point of the ultrasonic beam can be set near the surface of the living body 10.

In the present embodiment, the array transducer 20 is built in the probe main body 14. The ultrasonic beam can be linearly scanned by sequentially driving each of the vibrating elements in the array vibrator 20. of course,
The present invention is also applicable to a case where an ultrasonic beam is scanned in a sector. A cable 16 is connected to the probe main body 14, and the probe main body 14 is connected to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus via the cable 16.

As shown in FIG. 1, the living body contact surface 18A of the stand-off member 18 is an acoustic lens contact surface 18A.
It is inclined with respect to B. As a result, even if multiple reflections of the ultrasonic waves occur between the contact surfaces 18A and 18B as shown in FIG. 1, the ultrasonic waves can be gradually released to the side, and the influence of the multiple reflections is reduced. it can. The living body contact surface 18A is inclined in at least one of the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction of the probe main body 14.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the stand-off member 18A when the living body contact surface 18A is inclined in both the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction. As shown, the thickness of the standoff member 18 is different in both the longitudinal direction Y and the lateral direction X. That is, all the thicknesses of L1, L2, L3, and L4 in FIG. 2 are different.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention,
There is an advantage that the multi-reflection generated in the stand-off member can be reduced to improve the quality of the ultrasonic image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a view showing another embodiment of a stand-off member.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 living body, 12 ultrasonic probe, 14 probe body,
16 Cable, 18 standoff member, 18A biological contact surface, 18B acoustic lens contact surface.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A probe main body having an array transducer for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, and a stand-off member mounted on a transmitting and receiving surface of the probe main body and transmitting ultrasonic waves, An ultrasonic probe, wherein a living body contact surface of the stand-off member is inclined in at least one of a vibrating element array direction of the array vibrator and a direction orthogonal to the transmitting / receiving surface. 2. The ultrasonic probe according to claim 1, wherein a living body contact surface of the stand-off member is inclined in both directions of the vibrating element arrangement direction and a direction orthogonal thereto.