GERAET ZUR ULTRASCHALLABTASTUNG

摘要

In an illustrated embodiment an array of ultrasonic transducer elements is combined into a first transmitting surface to emit a first transmit signal, and then in alternation with blanking intervals is combined into receiving surfaces of progressively increased size for the reception of echo signals and for constructing a first image line of a first partial image. A second transmitting surface of lesser size then emits a transmit signal and further combinations of transducer elements are activated during time intervals thereafter which correspond to the blanking intervals of the first image line. Such sequential lines may form a composite line on a visual display. A planar array of transducer elements may have its successive receiving surfaces of varying size electronically focused either in the scan direction or in the layer thickness direction, or the array can have mechanical curvature to provide a desired focus in the layer direction. A circuit arrangement is preferred which simplifies the control of switching and minimizes the number of electronic focusing channels while still achieving a relatively high image frequency.