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US 10,310,061 B2Granted
Ultrasound transducer and method of manufacturing
AssigneeSURF Technology AS
InventorBjorn A. J. Angelsen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ultrasound transducer array with at least one composite material layer. The layer having a polymer base in which polymer particles are embedded. The polymer particles are coated with a material that has a thermal conductivity that is higher than the thermal conductivity of the polymer base and the polymer particles.
Claims28
An ultrasound transducer array probe arranged as a layered structure comprising:
- at least one layer of transducer array elements, and
- at least one further layer mounted in acoustic and thermal contact with said layer of transducer elements, said further layer comprises particles comprising a polymer core coated with at least one surface layer of a material having thermal conductivity greater than an amount of thermal conductivity of the polymer core;
- wherein the density of particles provides for a large number of particles to be in contact with neighboring particles for thermal conduction through said further layer.
A method of manufacturing an ultrasound transducer array as a layered structure comprising:
- selecting, for a layer comprising particles with a polymer core coated with at least one surface layer of a material that is more thermally conductive than the polymer core, wherein the density of the particles provides for a large number of said particles to be in contact with neighboring ones of said particles for thermal conduction through said layer, at least one of:
- an overall thermal conductivity of said layer by selecting at least one of i) a type of material for the particle surface layer, ii) a thickness of the particle surface layer, and iii) a dimension of the particle polymer core, and
- an acoustic property of said layer by selecting at least one of i) a type of material in the polymer base, ii) a type of material in the particle polymer core, iii) a dimension of the particle polymer core, iv) a type of material in the particle surface layer, and v) a thickness of the particle surface layer, and
- attaching said layer in acoustic and thermal contact to an ultrasound transducer array for heat conduction.
1 more element
A method of manufacturing an ultrasound transducer array comprising:
- creating a composite layer from a polymer base material having embedded particles, said particles comprising a polymer core coated with a surface layer of material with higher thermal conductivity than the polymer core and polymer base material, wherein the density of the embedded particles provides for a large number of said particles to be in contact with neighboring ones of said particles for thermal conduction through said composite layer, at least one of:
- an overall thermal conductivity of said composite layer is determined by selecting at least one of i) a type of material for the particle surface layer, ii) a thickness of the particle surface layer, iii) a dimension of the particle polymer core, and iv) a volume fill of said particles in the polymer base, and
- an acoustic property of said composite layer is determined by selecting at least one of i) a type of material in the polymer base, ii) a type of material in the particle polymer core, iii) a dimension of the particle polymer core, iv) a type of materials in the particle surface layer, v) a thickness of the particle surface layer, and vi) a volume fill density of particles in the polymer base;
- and
- attaching said composite material layer to an ultrasound transducer array for heat conduction.
2 more elements
An ultrasound transducer probe arranged as a layered structure comprising:
- at least one first layer comprising at least one transducer element, and
- at least one second layer mounted in acoustic and thermal contact with said at least one first layer, said at least one second layer comprising polymer core coated particles having a surface of a material having thermal conductivity greater than thermal conductivity of the polymer core;
- wherein the density of particles provides for a large number of polymer core coated particles to be in contact with neighboring polymer core coated particles for thermal conduction through said at least one second layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.