HIGH FREQUENCY ULTRASONIC CONVEX ARRAY TRANSDUCERS AND TISSUE IMAGING

摘要

A high frequency ultrasonic transducer may include a plurality of adjacent ultrasonic transducer elements. The adjacent transducer elements may be sized and configured so as to resonate at a frequency that is at least 15 MHz. The adjacent transducer elements may collectively form an aperture that is substantially convex along a lateral dimension spanning the cascaded width of the adjacent transducer elements. The aperture may be substantially concave along an elevation spanning the height of each of the transducer elements. The ultrasonic transducer and an associated transmitter system may be configured so as to enable ultrasound that is radiated from the plurality of the transducer elements to be focused on and to scan across locations that are no more than 30 millimeters from the aperture and that span across a field of view of at least 50 degrees without movement of the ultrasonic transducer or tissue during the scanning.

主权项

1. An ultrasonic tissue imaging system comprising:
a high frequency ultrasonic transducer comprising a plurality of adjacent, linear ultrasonic transducer elements that resonate at a frequency that is at least 15 MHz and that collectively form an aperture that is substantially convex along a lateral dimension spanning the cascaded width of the adjacent, linear transducer elements; a transmitter system configured to generate and deliver a plurality of signals simultaneously to a plurality of the transducer elements; a receiver system configured to receive signals simultaneously from a plurality of the transducer elements and to perform receive focusing on these signals; and an imaging system configured to generate an image of tissue based on the receive focusing, wherein the ultrasonic transducer and the transmitter system enable ultrasound that is radiated from the plurality of the transducer elements to be focused on and to scan across locations that are no more than 75 millimeters from the aperture and that span across a field of view of at least 20 degrees without movement of the ultrasonic transducer or tissue during the scanning.