High power microbeamformer ultrasound transducer probe
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorsAndrew Lee Robinson, Haifeng Wang
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Abstract
An ultrasonic transducer probe comprises an array transducer and a microbeamformer ASIC (46a, 46b) containing transmit amplifiers and receive circuitry for operation of the array transducer. For higher power operation, the drive current of the amplifiers is increased, rather than the transmit voltage. The elements of the array present a low impedance to the transmit amplifiers for increased drive current by their construction of thin layers (12) of piezoelectric material which are electrically coupled in parallel to an amplifier while being mechanically coupled in series for ultrasound transmission.
Claims15
An ultrasound device for operating at drive currents for increased transmit power comprising:
- a transducer array;
- and
- a microbeamformer integrated circuit located in the device and comprising a plurality of current drive amplifiers adapted to provide a drive current to actuate elements of a transducer array during ultrasonic transmission,
- wherein the transducer array comprises transducer elements configured to be actuated by the drive current,
- wherein at least one transducer element of the array comprises a plurality of piezoelectric layers that are (1) electrically coupled in parallel to a current drive amplifier of the microbeamformer integrated circuit and (2) mechanically coupled in series for ultrasonic transmission, and
- wherein a transmit power of the transducer array is adapted to be increased by increasing the drive current.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.