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US 8,946,972 B2Granted
Layer switching for an ultrasound transducer array
AssigneeSiemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
InventorsJohn Douglas Marshall, Jian-Hua Mo, Kutay F. Ustuner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A multi-layer transducer operates with only one system channel per element. Passive switching connects the layers differently for transmit than for receive operation, such as connecting two layers in parallel for transmit and in series for receive. Any passive switching may be used, such as current and voltage limiting circuits. Tuning may be passively switched. Different tuning circuits are passively switched as a function of voltage level between transmit and receive operations.
Claims7
An ultrasound transducer element system, the system comprising:
- at least one ultrasound transducer element comprising at least first and second layers of transducer material having a single center terminal between the first and second layers, each of the first and second layers of transducer material operable to convert between electrical and acoustic energies based on a transduction nature of the transducer material;
- a transmit beamformer channel connected with the element such that both first and second layers are responsive to a same transmit waveform, the transmit waveform applied to the single center terminal between the first and second layers;
- a receive beamformer channel connected with the element and configured such that signals generated by both the first and second layers, in response to acoustic echoes to acoustic energy transmitted by the transmit beamformer, are provided to the receive beamformer channel;
- a passive switching circuit connected between and with the single center terminal and both of the transmit beamformer channel and the receive beamformer channel.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.