Three dimensional imaging ultrasound probe
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips Electroncis N.V.
InventorsJeffrey Hart, Brian Moist, Dennis Clark, Daniel Agius
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultrasound probe includes a transducer array which is moved back and forth to sweep the image plane of the array through a volumetric region for 3D scanning. The transducer array is mounted on a carriage assembly which moves back and forth on a pair of rails inside a fluid compartment in the probe. The rails are preferentially arcuately curved to provide an elevationally divergent scan with a relatively wide aperture in the near field. A cam is provided for a motor-driven cable drive for the carriage assembly which provides relatively linear motion through the path of travel of the transducer array.
Claims14
An ultrasonic probe which scans a volumetric region by movement of an array transducer comprising:
- a probe case with an end cap having a fluid compartment at a distal end;
- an array transducer mounted on a carriage assembly in the fluid compartment;
- a pair of rails on which the carriage assembly travels in the fluid compartment;
- a pair of rollers located at each end of the carriage assembly, two of the rollers riding on the top of the rails and two of the rollers riding on the bottom of the rails, the rollers rotating about axis of rotation directed across the pair of rails;
- a drive cable connected to the carriage assembly;
- a rotatable cam having a center axis about which the drive cable is wound;
- and
- a motor operatively coupled to move the carriage assembly and array transducer on the rails,
- wherein the rotatable cam is oriented so that the axis of rotation of the cam extends substantially orthogonal to the axis of rotation of the rollers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.