Methods for manufacturing ultrasound transducers and other components

An ultrasonic transducer assembly comprising:

• an ultrasonic transducer array comprising a set of even transducer elements and a set of odd transducer elements alternating with the even transducer elements, the even transducer elements and the odd transducer elements having a pitch therebetween;
• at least two multi-layer printed circuits, each multi-layer printed circuit comprising a plurality of stepped trace layers having a conductive traces therein, wherein the conductive traces on each of the multi-layer printed circuits are interleaved such the traces have a pitch equal to the pitch of the even or odd transducer elements but the traces in any single trace layer of multi-layer printed circuits have a pitch that is greater than the pitch of the even or odd transducer elements;
• and
• a plurality of interconnections, each interconnection coupling a conductive trace of the multi-layer printed circuit to a transducer element.

A method of assembling an ultrasonic transducer assembly, by:

• securing a multi-layer printed circuit to an ultrasound transducer array with an adhesive, wherein the multi-layer printed circuit is of the type that has at least two stepped trace layers having a plurality of conductive traces therein that are separated by a distance that is greater than a pitch between adjacent transducer elements in the transducer array but the conductive traces from each of the at least two layers are interleaved such that the traces from all of the at least two trace layers match the pitch of the transducer elements in the transducer array;
• creating channels in the adhesive between the transducer elements and the traces in the multi-layer printed circuit;
• depositing a conductor material over the ultrasound array and at least a portion of the multi-layer printed circuit that has been channeled;
• placing a resist material over the conductor material;
• removing a portion of the resist material where the conductor material is not desired;
• etching the conductor material to remove most of the conductor material where it is not desired;
• and
• removing any additional conductor material where it is not desired with a laser.