JPS60167598A - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable emitting of ultrasonic beams having wide directivity and high intensity by forming each vibrators into a sectional curvature trapezoid opening in the direction to which ultrasonic waves are emitted in terms of ultrasonic probe having plural vibrators arranged in a array. CONSTITUTION:An ultrasonic probe 1 has plural vibrators 2 arranged in an array, parts of which are burried in a packing layer 4 for absorbing ultrasonic waves. Each vibrator 2 forms a sectional curvature trapezoid opening with an angle theta2 more than 90 deg. in the ultrasonic radiation direction, electrodes 8 and 10 on the opposite face of a piezoelectric body 6 and a matching layer 12 for matching impedance of an object exposing from a packing layer 4 on one electrode 8. As a result, ultrasonic beams to be emitted from each vibrator 2 of the ultrasonic probe 1 has the wide angle theta2 and a wide actual effective area as a sound source; therefore beam intensity becomes larger than that of a conventional one and the generation of a side lobe can be prevented.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] @) Industrial application field The present invention mainly 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 the conventional ultrasonic probe a, each transducer has a certain width l,
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 aperture synthesis technology to ultrasonic diagnostic equipment has been considered 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, in order to apply the aperture synthesis technique to an ultrasonic diagnostic device, the ultrasonic probe is required to have wide directivity. One way to widen the directivity is to make the sound source smaller. The conventional ultrasonic probe for aperture synthesis has a piezoelectric material g sandwiched therebetween by a predetermined width 12 on the main surface of the piezoelectric material g, as its vibrator f, as shown in FIG. It has been proposed that partial electrodes , h2 are formed to face each other, and a part of the piezoelectric body g is thereby driven. 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.

B) Structure In order to achieve the above object, the present invention forms a plurality of transducers arranged in an array to have a curved trapezoidal cross section opening in the ultrasonic radiation direction.

(e) Example Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail 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 line V-V line K in Fig. 4.
It is a sectional view of G. The ultrasonic probe 1 of this embodiment includes a plurality of transducers 2 arranged in an array, each of which is partially embedded in a backing layer 4 for absorbing ultrasonic waves.

Further, each vibrator 2 has a curved trapezoidal cross section that opens at an angle θ2 of 900 or more in the ultrasonic emission direction (upward in the figure), and has electrodes 8 and 10 on the surface facing the piezoelectric body 60.
A matching layer 12 for impedance matching with the subject exposed from the backing layer 4 is placed on the surface of the one electrode 8.
It is composed by forming each.

Therefore, the ultrasonic beam emitted from each transducer 2 of this ultrasonic probe 1 has a wide angle θ2 range as shown in FIG. , and the generation of side lobes can also be suppressed.

(f) Effects As described above, according to the present invention, each transducer constituting the ultrasonic probe is formed into a curved trapezoidal cross section with an opening in the ultrasonic radiation direction, so that a wide directional characteristic is required for aperture synthesis. It has the excellent effect of being able to emit an ultrasonic beam with sufficient strength and strength.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIGS. 1 to 3 show a conventional example, and FIGS. 4 to 6 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a part of the ultrasonic probe, and FIG. is a directional characteristic diagram of the ultrasonic probe in Fig. 1, 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 v-v line in Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 is the directivity characteristic of the ultrasonic probe shown in Fig. 4. It is a diagram. 1... Ultrasonic probe, 2... Vibrator. Applicant: Shimadzu Corporation Agent: Kazuhide Okada, Patent Attorney

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An ultrasonic probe equipped with a plurality of transducers arranged in an array, each of the transducers having a curved trapezoidal cross section opening in the ultrasound radiation direction. Ultrasonic probe.