Methods for manufacturing ultrasound transducers and other components

摘要

The disclosed technology features methods for the manufacture of electrical components such as ultrasound transducers. In particular, the disclosed technology provides methods of creating an ultrasonic transducer by connecting one or more multi-layer printed circuits to an array of ultrasound transducer elements. In one embodiment, the printed circuits have traces in a single layer that are spaced by a distance that is greater than a pitch of the transducer elements to which the multi-layer printed circuit is to be connected. However the traces from all the layers in the multi-layer printed circuit are interleaved to have a pitch that is equal to the pitch of the transducer elements. The disclosed technology also features ultrasound transducers produced by the methods described herein.

主权项

1. An ultrasonic transducer assembly comprising:
a transducer array comprising a number of spaced transducer elements; at least one printed circuit including a plurality of stepped trace layers arranged in a staircase fashion such that an edge of a top trace layer of the printed circuit is position farther away from the transducer elements than an edge of a bottom trace layer, wherein each layer has a plurality of conductive traces with a portion of the traces in each layer aligned with and electrically coupled to a corresponding transducer element via a conductive interconnection and wherein the portions of the traces in each trace layer that are aligned with the transducer elements have a pith that is greater than a pitch between adjacent transducer elements and wherein the traces that are interleaved have a pitch that is less than the, pitch between, adjacent traces, in each trace layer.