Us imaging apparatus with an antibacterial and/or an antimicrobial embedded in or on a surface thereof

Abstract

An ultrasound imaging apparatus (100) includes a housing. The housing includes a plurality of sides (312-322, 412-422). The plurality of sides includes a material with at least one of an antibacterial or an antimicrobial agent thereon. The housing further includes an acoustic window (324, 424) of one of the sides. The housing further includes a transducer array (102) of transducing elements (104) disposed within the sides and adjacent to the acoustic window. In one instance, the housing is a housing of a probe (202), which is separate and distinct from a console that controls the probe and processes received data. In another instance, the housing is a housing of a single elongate hand held scanner (400), which includes components for controlling the probe and processing received data.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.