DRIVER DEVICE AND DRIVING METHOD FOR DRIVING A CAPACITIVE LOAD IN PARTICULAR AN ULTRASOUND TRANSDUCER

摘要

The present invention relates to a driver device (40; 60) for driving a capacitive load (12) in particular an ultrasound transducer (12) having one or more transducer elements comprising an output terminal (42; 68) for providing an alternating drive voltage (V14; V22) to the load (12) a plurality of voltage supply elements (46 48 50 52; 72 74) for providing intermediate voltage levels (VI 6) a plurality of controllable connecting means (S0 S7) each associated to one of the voltage supply elements (46 48 50 52; 72 74) for connecting the voltage supply elements (46 48 50 52; 72 74) to the output terminal (42; 68) and for supplying one of the intermediate voltage levels (V16) or a sum of a plurality of the intermediate voltage levels (V16) as the alternating drive voltage (V14; V22) to the output terminal.