Ultrasonograph, ultrasonic transducer, examining instrument, and ultrasonographing device

An ultrasonic transducer comprising:

• a substrate;
• a semiconductor integrated circuit formed on the substrate;
• a common electrode formed on a rear face of the substrate;
• a plurality of piezoelectric layers independently formed in a matrix on the common electrode;
• and
• a plurality of upper electrodes formed on the piezoelectric layers respectively,
• wherein each of the piezoelectric layers includes barium titanate or lead zirconate titanate and has a thickness of 0.1 μm to 100 μm.

An inspection device comprising:

• a plurality of contact terminals having a needle-like structure;
• a drive section connected to the contact terminals and causing an arbitrary one of the contact terminals to generate a drive voltage;
• a detecting section connected to the contact terminals and detecting from the plural contact terminals electrical signals which are returned from an inspection object to the contact terminals due to the generated drive voltage;
• and
• a processing section performing processing for visualizing a state of the inspection object based on the detected electrical signals and a position of the arbitrary contact terminal.

An ultrasonograph comprising:

• an ultrasonic transducer having a common electrode including one surface, a piezoelectric layer formed on the one surface of the common electrode, and an upper electrode formed on the piezoelectric layer;
• a drive section connected to the upper electrode and capable of driving the piezoelectric layer from the upper electrode;
• a detecting section connected to the upper electrode and detecting from the upper electrode an electrical signal that the piezoelectric layer generates based on an echo from an irradiation object, the echo being originated from an ultrasonic wave generated by the driven piezoelectric layer;
• a scan-moving mechanism scan-moving the ultrasonic transducer relatively to the irradiation object;
• and
• a processing section performing processing for visualizing a state of the irradiation object based on the detected electrical signal and a position of the scan-moved ultrasonic transducer,
• wherein the piezoelectric layer of the ultrasonic transducer includes barium titanate or lead zirconate titanate and has a thickness of 0.1 μm to 100 μm.

An ultrasonograph comprising:

• a laser beam source generating an intermittent or intensity-modulated laser beam;
• an irradiation optical system irradiating an irradiation object with the generated laser beam in a spot-like state;
• a scan-moving mechanism scan-moving the irradiation optical system relatively to the irradiation object;
• a vibration displacement detecting section which performs non-contact detection of vibration displacement on a surface of the irradiation object by a displacement measuring method using a laser beam, the vibration displacement caused by an echo of an ultrasonic wave in the irradiation object generated by the irradiated laser beam, and which transduces the vibration displacement to an electrical signal;
• and
• a processing section performing processing for visualizing a state of the irradiation object based on the electrical signal obtained after the transducing and a position of the scan-moved irradiation optical system.

An ultrasonic imaging device, comprising:

• an ultrasonic transducer having a plurality of piezoelectric transducing sections arranged in a matrix or in a line;
• a driven element selecting section connected to the plural piezoelectric transducing sections and capable of driving an arbitrary one of the plural piezoelectric transducing sections;
• a signal detecting circuit connected to the plural piezoelectric transducing sections and detecting in parallel electrical signals that the plural piezoelectric transducing sections generate as a result of receiving, from an inspection object via an acoustic propagation medium, reflected echoes of an ultrasonic wave generated by the driven piezoelectric transducing section;
• a signal processing section performing processing for imaging a state of the inspection object by using parallel computation based on the electrical signals detected in parallel;
• and
• a display device displaying an imaged result of the processing,
• wherein the signal processing section comprises:
• storage means for storing ultrasonic wave propagation time from the driven piezoelectric transducing section to one of the plural piezoelectric transducing sections regarding each mesh in an area to be imaged in the inspection object, which is divided into meshes, the ultrasonic wave propagation time being stored for each combination of the driven piezoelectric transducing section and the one of the plural piezoelectric transducing sections;
• a plurality of processing means, using the stored ultrasonic wave propagation time, for performing, based on time direction data in one of the electrical signals detected in parallel, processing for determining a reflection intensity for each mesh in the area divided into meshes, the determining processing being performed in parallel for the electrical signals detected in parallel;
• and
• adding means for adding, for each mesh in the area divided into meshes, the reflection intensities determined and processed in parallel.

An ultrasonograph comprising:

• a piezoelectric transducing section having a plurality of piezoelectric transducing elements;
• a solid acoustic propagation medium in a flat plate shape acoustically connected to the piezoelectric transducing section;
• a drive section selecting the piezoelectric transducing element from the piezoelectric transducing section to cause the selected piezoelectric transducing element to generate an ultrasonic wave;
• a detecting section detecting electrical signals generated from the piezoelectric transducing elements of the piezoelectric transducing section based on reflected ultrasonic waves which result from reflection of a part of the ultrasonic wave from an object to be inspected in a liquid acoustic medium after the ultrasonic wave is transmitted from the piezoelectric transducing element selected by the drive section;
• an image creating section creating an image showing an inner state of the object to be inspected based on the electrical signals detected in the detecting section;
• and
• a display section displaying the image created in the image creating section.

An ultrasonograph comprising:

• a first piezoelectric transducing section having a plurality of piezoelectric transducing elements;
• a first solid acoustic propagation medium acoustically connected to the piezoelectric transducing section;
• a drive section selecting a piezoelectric transducing element from the first piezoelectric transducing section to cause the selected piezoelectric transducing element to generate an ultrasonic wave;
• a second solid acoustic propagation medium arranged to face the first solid acoustic propagation medium;
• a second piezoelectric transducing section acoustically connected to the second solid acoustic propagation medium and having a plurality of piezoelectric elements;
• a detecting section detecting an electrical signal generated in the second piezoelectric transducing section;
• an image creating section creating an image based on the electrical signal detected in the detecting section;
• and
• a display section displaying the image created in the image creating section.