Ultrasonic probe
AssigneeTicona LLC
InventorsDarin Grinsteinner, Young Shin Kim
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Abstract
An ultrasonic probe that comprises an ultrasonic transducer that includes an array of transducer elements and an attenuation material is provided. The attenuation material comprises a polymer composition that includes a liquid crystalline polymer and a thermally conductive particulate material. The liquid crystalline polymer has a melting temperature of about 270° C. or more and a melt viscosity of about 500 Pa-s or less as determined at a temperature of 45° C. above the melting temperature and shear rate of 400 s−1 in accordance with ISO Test No. 11443:2005, and the polymer composition also has a through-plane conductivity of about 0.2 W/m-K or more.
Claims22
An ultrasonic probe comprising:
- an ultrasonic transducer that includes an array of transducer elements capable of converting electrical energy to ultrasonic acoustic energy for emission towards a region of interest;
- and
- an attenuation material that is capable of inhibiting the return of the ultrasonic acoustic energy back towards the ultrasonic transducer after emission towards the region of interest, wherein the attenuation material comprises a polymer composition that includes a liquid crystalline polymer and a thermally conductive particulate material, wherein the liquid crystalline polymer comprises repeating units derived from naphthenic hydroxycarboxylic acids and/or naphthenic dicarboxylic acids has a melting temperature of about 270° C. or more and a melt viscosity of about 500 Pa-s or less as determined at a temperature of 45° C. above the melting temperature and shear rate of 400 s−1 in accordance with ISO Test No. 11443:2005, and further wherein the polymer composition has a through-plane conductivity of 0.4 W/m-K or more.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.