JPS60165949A - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] K) Field of industrial application Himi +41'4 U This invention relates to an ultrasonic probe for aperture synthesis.

(B) Prior Art A conventional linear scanning type ultrasonic probe is shown in FIG. This ultrasonic probe a includes a plurality of transducers arranged in an array, and a matching layer C for impedance matching with the subject on one side of the transducers.
However, a backing layer d for absorbing ultrasonic waves is provided on the other side. Each vibrator has a rectangular parallelepiped shape as a whole, and electrodes b2.
It is configured by forming b3. By the way, in such a conventional ultrasonic probe a, each transducer has a certain width l! 1
As shown in Figure 2, the ultrasonic beam emitted from this has a narrow angular range (θ in the figure).
1), and sidelobes appear in areas wider than this. For this reason, the azimuth resolution is still insufficient. In recent years, the application of open 1-component synthesis technology to ultrasonic diagnostic equipment has been studied in order to improve lateral resolution. In this aperture synthesis, a high-resolution diagnostic image is obtained by emitting an ultrasonic beam toward a subject from a sound source with wide directivity, collecting information over a wide area, and performing phase synthesis. In this way, K, which applies aperture synthesis technology to an ultrasonic diagnostic device, is required to have wide directivity as an ultrasonic probe.

One way to expand the directivity is to make the sound source smaller. Therefore, conventional ultrasonic probes for aperture synthesis have
As the vibrator f, as shown in FIG. 3, partial electrodes are formed on the main surface of the piezoelectric body g by a predetermined width 12 so as to sandwich the piezoelectric body g and face each other. A device in which a part of the piezoelectric body g is driven has been proposed. However, in this case, although the directivity is widened, the effective area for emitting the ultrasonic beam is small, so the beam intensity is low and the S/N ratio is deteriorated.

(c) Purpose The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to obtain an ultrasonic probe for aperture synthesis that can emit an ultrasonic beam with wide directivity and high intensity.

2) Structure In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a plurality of rectangular parallelepiped-shaped receiver-only transducers, while wave-transmission-only transducers having a curved trapezoidal cross section are sequentially arranged at predetermined intervals to vibrate. A child array is configured, and the transmitting-only transducer is set so that the focal point of the ultrasonic beam emitted from it is located near the ultrasonic beam receiving surface of the receiving-only transducer.

(e) Example The present invention will be described in detail below based on an example shown in FIGS. 4 to 6.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a part of the ultrasonic probe of this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line V--■ in FIG. 4. The ultrasonic probe 1 of this embodiment includes a transducer array 2, and a matching layer 4 for impedance matching with the object on one side of the transducer array 2, and an ultrasonic matching layer 4 on the other side opposite to this. A backing layer 6 for absorbing the attenuation of the sound wave beam is also attached to the backing layer 6, respectively. The above-mentioned transducer array 2 includes a plurality of rectangular parallelepiped-shaped reception-only transducers 8 arranged in a straight line, and a wave-transmission-only transducer 10 having a curved trapezoidal cross section arranged in a predetermined manner relative to the reception-only transducer 8. Interval (in this example, two receiving-only transducers 8)
They are arranged and configured in sequence. 1-Maybe
10 vibration modes for each wave transmission.

The focal point ◯ of the ultrasonic beam emitted from the ultrasonic beam is set to be located near the ultrasonic beam receiving surface 12 of the receiving-only transducer 8. And each transmitting-only transducer 10 (!:
The receiving-only vibrator 8 is a piezoelectric body 1 made of PZT or the like.
Electrodes 101) and 1 are placed on the opposite surfaces of 0a1101), respectively.
0(!, 8a, 8b. Note that 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a fan-shaped ultrasonic transmission layer interposed between the matching layer 4 and the wave transmission-only transducer 10.

Therefore, the ultrasonic beam emitted from each transmission-only transducer 10 of this ultrasonic probe 1 once focuses at 0, and then
The wave is transmitted to the subject at a predetermined angle θ2 of 0° or more,
The reflected wave from the subject is received by each receiving-only transducer 8. As a result, the directivity characteristics of the ultrasonic beam emitted from the transducer 10 for transmitting waves have a wide range as shown in Fig. 6, and the effective area relative to the sound beam is large, so the beam intensity is larger than before. The occurrence of zydrobes can also be suppressed.

(f) Effects As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to emit an ultrasonic beam with a wide directivity and sufficient intensity necessary for aperture synthesis, which is a practically excellent effect. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 to 3 show conventional examples, and Figures 4 to 3 show conventional examples. 6 shows embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a part of the ultrasonic probe, FIG. 2 is a directional characteristic diagram of the ultrasonic probe shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a transducer for aperture synthesis, Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing a part of the ultrasonic probe, Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a transducer for aperture synthesis. The figure is a directional characteristic diagram of an ultrasonic probe. 1 - Ultrasonic probe, 2 - Transducer array, 8 - Receiving-only transducer, 10 - Wave-transmitting transducer. Applicant: Shimadzu Corporation Agent: Kazuhide Okada, Patent Attorney

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A transducer array is constructed by sequentially arranging transducers having a curved trapezoid cross-section for transmitting waves at predetermined intervals with respect to a plurality of transducers exclusively for receiving waves having a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and An ultrasonic probe characterized in that the dedicated transducer is set so that the focal point of the ultrasonic beam emitted from the transducer is located near the ultrasonic beam receiving surface of the receiving transducer.