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US 7,598,658 B2Granted
Ultrasonic probe
AssigneesKabuhsiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation
InventorsTakashi Takeuchi, Hiroyuki Shikata, Minoru Aoki, Shinichi Sato, Masaaki Sudo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ultrasonic probe includes piezoelectric elements each including grooves parallel to each other and arrayed in a direction substantially parallel to the grooves, and a mixed member which is to fill the grooves and obtained by mixing in a nonconductive resin member a nonconductive granular substance with a coefficient of thermal expansion of not more than substantially 10−5 K−1.
Claims9
An ultrasonic probe, comprising:
- piezoelectric elements each including grooves parallel to each other and arrayed in a direction of the grooves;
- and
- a mixed member which fills the grooves and is obtained by mixing, in a nonconductive resin member, a nonconductive granular substance with a coefficient of thermal expansion of not more than substantially 10−5 K−1, wherein a lower limit of a weight ratio of the nonconductive granular substance to the mixed member is 30 wt %, and an upper limit thereof is determined by a largest amount of the nonconductive granular substance that can be mixed in the nonconductive resin member.
A piezoelectric transducers comprising:
- a piezoelectric element including grooves;
- and
- a mixed member which fills the grooves and is obtained by mixing, in a nonconductive resin member, a nonconductive granular substance with a coefficient of thermal expansion of not more than substantially 10−5 K−1, wherein a lower limit of a weight ratio of the nonconductive granular substance to the mixed member is 30 wt %, and an upper limit thereof is determined by a largest amount of the nonconductive granular substance that can be mixed in the nonconductive resin member.
An ultrasonic probe, comprising:
- piezoelectric elements each including grooves parallel to each other and arrayed in a direction of the grooves;
- and
- a mixed member which fills the grooves and is obtained by mixing, in a nonconductive resin member, a nonconductive granular substance with a coefficient of thermal expansion of not more than substantially 10−5 K−1, wherein a grain size of the granular substance is no more than substantially one-eighth a wavelength of an ultrasonic wave that the piezoelectric elements transmit and receive.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.