ULTRASONIC DIAGNOSTIC APPARATUS

摘要

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprises a plurality of vibration elements (1) for sending and receiving ultrasonic beams, a plurality of transmission circuits (2) which are connected to the vibration elements, respectively, and each output a transmission driving signal for driving the vibration element, and a transmission power supply (3) for supplying electric power to the transmission circuits. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus further comprises a pulse detection unit (21) for detecting a transmission signal to be used for generating the transmission driving signal, a power measurement unit (20) for detecting the electric power to be supplied to the whole of the transmission circuits, a distribution calculation unit (24) for calculating the amount of electric power to be distributed to each of the vibration elements on the basis of the outputs of the pulse detection unit and the power measurement unit, and a power distribution derivation unit (22) for deriving the power to be supplied to each of the vibration elements from the output of the distribution calculation unit. The ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus controls the transmission driving signal on the basis of the power distribution derived by the power distribution derivation unit. With this configuration, it is possible to provide a smaller-sized and highly reliable ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus which is capable of monitoring the temperature in order to detect local heating of the vibration elements on the basis of the actual transmission power by using the circuits consisting of fewer parts.