JPS62118700A - Ultrasonic wave probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent destruction of the element, cut off of the electrode and exfoliation of the matching and to miniaturize the ultrasonic wave probe when an external force is applied by scattering organic or inorganic powder coated with a soft elastic resin into a having a comparatively large hardness so as to form a packing member. CONSTITUTION:The packing member 4 is formed by mixing and scattering the organic or inorganic powder 10 on the surface of which the soft elastic resin 11 is coated into the resin 12 having a large hardness. When a sound wave is propagated in the packing member 4, since the powder 10 is in the state vibrated easily because the surrounding is surrounded by the soft resin, the energy of the sound wave is converted and attenuated into the friction heat with the surrounding resin. Thus, even when a thin packing member is used, an excellent characteristic is obtained and the miniaturization of the probe is realized.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] An ultrasonic probe for an ultrasonic diagnosis rIJT device, in which a banking material that holds a piezoelectric element for generating ultrasonic waves from the rear surface thereof is made of a soft rubber-like resin. By creating a structure in which organic or inorganic powder coated with a resin is dispersed in a relatively hard resin, the attenuation rate becomes thick, making it possible to achieve good response characteristics and downsizing.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and more specifically, to an improvement in its packing material.

Recently, electronics have been increasingly applied to medicine, and one of them is ultrasonic diagnostic equipment. This ultrasound diagnostic device uses the propagation of ultrasonic waves through body tissues to obtain tomographic images of the inside of the body.
Ultrasonic waves of ~10 MHz are transmitted from the body surface, the ultrasound waves, or echoes, reflected from the surface of organs are received, and the distance to the reflector is measured from the propagation time. For scanning, either a mechanical method of mechanically agitating the transducers or a method of arranging a large number of transducers and scanning them electronically (electronic scanning) is used. The present invention relates to an ultrasound probe that uses electronic scanning.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional ultrasonic probe 01. This uses a piezoelectric element 1 for generating ultrasonic waves, and on the sound wave emission side there are one to three acoustic matching layers 2 for matching the piezoelectric element and the medium, and an acoustic matching layer 2 for focusing the ultrasonic waves. lens 3
A banking material 4 for absorbing unnecessary sound waves is provided on the opposite side, and these are housed in a handy case 5.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Conventional packing materials are designed to increase the attenuation of sound waves.
Comparative Terms and Conditions Comparative terms and conditions A resin in which tungsten or other powder is dispersed is used, but when pasting a piezoelectric element with such a soft packing material, the packing material deforms due to the force applied to the element during dicing, and the division size In addition, even after completion, the packing material was deformed due to the pressure applied during use, causing problems such as destruction of the piezoelectric element, cutting of the electrode, and peeling of the matching layer.

Furthermore, if the resin is made hard in order to make the packing material hard, the attenuation of sound waves will be reduced, making it impossible to obtain good response characteristics. Therefore, in order to obtain good response characteristics, it is necessary to increase the thickness of the banking material in order to reduce the sound waves that return from the back surface of the packing material, resulting in the disadvantage that the ultrasonic probe becomes large.

The present invention was created in view of these points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ultrasonic probe having a packing material that has high hardness and has a large attenuation of sound waves.

[Means for solving problems]

Therefore, in the present invention, an ultrasonic probe has a structure in which the piezoelectric element 1 has one or more layers of acoustic matching N2 and an acoustic lens 3 on the sound wave emission surface, and the rear surface of the piezoelectric element 1 is held with a packing material 4. In this case, the banking material 4 is made of an organic or inorganic powder 1 coated with a soft rubber-like resin 11.
0 is dispersed in a resin 12 having relatively high hardness.

[For production]

When sound waves propagate through the packing material mentioned above, the powder is surrounded by soft resin, so it is in a state where it easily vibrates.
Converts the energy of sound waves into frictional heat with the surrounding resin due to vibration. For this reason, although it is hard as a whole, it is possible to increase the attenuation of sound waves.

〔Example〕

In this embodiment, similarly to the conventional example shown in FIG.
It comprises an acoustic matching N2, an acoustic lens 3, a packing material 4, a case 5, etc., and the difference is that the configuration of the packing material 4 has been changed.

That is, the banking material 4 of this embodiment has a soft rubber-like resin 1 on the surface of a powder 10 such as an inorganic powder such as a metal or metal oxide, or an organic powder.
1 (silicone rubber, polyurethane, epoxy resin,
(nitrile rubber, polybutadiene, natural rubber, etc.)
is coated with resin 12 (
It is mixed and dispersed in epoxy resin, phenol resin, diallyl phthalate resin, etc.).

Note that this packing material 4 is prepared with a particle size of 5 to 40 μm.
After soaking powder of iron oxide (Fez03) in a solution of thermosetting silicone rubber diluted with toluene and stirring well,
The excess solution was discarded, and the toluene was evaporated by drying at room temperature. After that, the silicone rubber was heated and cured at 150°C in an electric furnace, and the resin-coated iron oxide powder was coated with epoxy resin (Ciba Geigy XN1019 and
After mixing and dispersing 15 to 70 percent by volume in a 2:3 weight ratio mixture, the mixture is vacuum defoamed, heated and hardened at 120° C., and then molded into a predetermined size. As shown in FIG. 2, the piezoelectric element 1 and the matching layer N2 are pasted on the packing material 4 formed in this way using an adhesive, and after making cuts 6 with a dicing saw to divide the element, the matching layer 2 is separated. An acoustic lens (not shown) is pasted on top to complete the ultrasound probe. In addition, packing material 4 and piezoelectric element 1
In some cases, an acoustic matching layer is also inserted between the two.

In this embodiment configured in this way, the packing material 4
When a sound wave propagates inside, the powder 10 is surrounded by soft resin and easily vibrates, so the energy of the sound wave can be converted into frictional heat with the surrounding resin due to vibration and attenuated. .

The above-mentioned iron oxide powder treated with silicone rubber has a power of 8 dB/mm (3.5 MH
Attenuation of ) in z is obtained. Therefore, even if the packing material is made thin, good characteristics can be obtained, and the probe can be made smaller.

Furthermore, since the packing material is hard, problems such as destruction of the piezoelectric element, cutting of the electrode, and peeling of the matching layer due to external force applied during use are eliminated. Furthermore, when dividing a piezoelectric element into strips as shown in FIG. 2, conventional soft packing materials deform due to the force applied during dicing, making it difficult to maintain the precision of the cutting pitch P. However, the present invention solves this problem. There isn't.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, when an external force is applied, elements are not destroyed, electrodes are cut, matching layers are not peeled off, etc., and the ultrasonic probe can be made smaller. , and is extremely useful in practice.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a cross section of the packing material according to the embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the dicing process when manufacturing an electronic scanning probe, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing a conventional ultrasonic probe. FIG. 1, 2, and 3, 1 is a piezoelectric element, 2 is an acoustic matching layer, 3 is an acoustic lens, 4 is a packing material, 5 is a case, 10 is a powder, and 11 is a soft rubber-like resin , 12 are resins with relatively high hardness.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The piezoelectric element (1) has one or more acoustic matching layers (2) and an acoustic lens (3) on the sound wave emitting surface;
) In an ultrasonic probe having a structure in which the rear surface is held by a packing material (4), the packing material (4) is a soft rubber-like resin (11).
An ultrasonic probe characterized in that an organic or inorganic powder (10) coated with is dispersed in a relatively hard resin (12). 2. The ultrasonic probe according to claim 1, further comprising at least one acoustic matching layer between the piezoelectric element (1) and the packing material (4). 3. The ultrasonic probe according to claim 1, wherein the piezoelectric element (1) is divided into strips.