Configurable ultrasonic imager
AssigneeExo Imaging, Inc.
InventorsYusuf Haque, Sandeep Akkaraju, Janusz Bryzek, Brian Bircumshaw
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Abstract
An imaging device includes a two dimensional array of piezoelectric elements. Each piezoelectric element includes: a piezoelectric layer; a bottom electrode disposed on a bottom side of the piezoelectric layer and configured to receive a transmit signal during a transmit mode and develop an electrical charge during a receive mode; and a first top electrode disposed on a top side of the piezoelectric layer; and a first conductor, wherein the first top electrodes of a portion of the piezoelectric elements in a first column of the two dimensional array are electrically coupled to the first conductor.
Claims51
A portable programmable imaging device, comprising:
- a transducer configured to produce an ultrasonic image;
- control circuitry;
- communication circuitry;
- programmable memory;
- wherein the transducer comprises a planar array of piezoelectric elements, each of the piezoelectric elements being configured to operate in a plurality of modes of operation, each of the modes of operation corresponding to one or more configuration profiles stored in the programmable memory and executable by the control circuitry.
A method of operating a portable programmable imaging device comprising a transducer, the transducer comprising a planar array of piezoelectric elements, each piezoelectric element configured to operate in a plurality of modes of operation, the method comprising:
- a) maintaining, in a programmable memory of the portable programmable imaging device, a plurality of configuration profiles;
- b) executing, by a control circuitry of the portable programmable imaging device, one or more configuration profiles selected from the plurality of configuration profiles;
- and
- c) operating, by the control circuitry, the planar array of piezoelectric elements in a mode of operation selected from the plurality of modes of operation according the one or more selected configuration profiles to produce an ultrasonic image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.