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Apparatus for ultrasonic examination of objects, particularly in medical diagnostic examination, is comprised of a phased array transducer capable of focusing the beam of ultrasonic pulses in the longitudinal plane of the transducer, and focusing means to focus the dimensions of the beam normal to the...     

A system for on-site, non-destructive examination of the seam welds or other portions of the walls of a vessel, for example, a nuclear reactor pressure vessel, including an instrument carrying, remotely controlled vehicle with magnetic adherence means which may be selectively propelled to any position...     

An apparatus for the pulse-echo ultrasonic examination, particularly in medical diagnostic examination, is comprised of a plurality of transducers spaced around the object to be examined, each of the transducers being steerable to direct pulses of ultrasonic energy into the object and to receive echoes...     

An ultrasonic examination device comprising two curved converging mirrors, the points of focus of which differ and are separated from each other over a distance equalling the width of the image plane. The device furthermore comprises two pairs of mosaics, formed by transducers, which are mounted back-to-back...     

A signal processor for an ultrasonic imaging system permits the selection of scan angles and focusing distances. The system includes an ultrasonic receiver comprising an array of electromechanical transducers, with the individual transducers being coupled to phase selection circuitry whereby non-continuous...     

An ultrasonic probing system including: a recurrent electric impulse sender, several transducer devices integral with a common support and connected to said sender; receptor devices connected with said sender, wherein the transducer devices are arranged to include focal areas which together cover an...     

Apparatus for ultrasonic examination of objects, particularly in medical gnostic examination, incorporates means for focusing portions of the beam of ultrasonic pulses generated by a transducer at a plurality of distances from the transducer to reduce the width of the beam over a large distance.

An echoscope for examination of objects with the aid of ultrasonic pulses, comprising at least one electroacoustic element for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic pulses during a transmission-reception period divided into n consecutive time intervals. The ultrasonic pulses are sent to the objects to...     

An ultrasonic pulse echo real time imaging system comprises a segmented transducer array formed by a plurality of juxtaposed transducer elements. Successive scans are performed by forming a first predetermined quantity of juxtaposed elements and incrementally shifting said first quantity along said array...     

Apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of an object comprises: A linear transducer array for directing pulses of ultrasonic energy along a plurality of beams into the object and receiving echoes of the pulses reflected along the beams by acoustic impedance discontinuities within the object, the transducer...     

The invention is utilized in an apparatus for imaging sections of a body by transmitting ultrasonic energy into the body and determining the characteristics of the ultrasonic energy reflected therefrom. Such an apparatus typically includes a timer for generating timing signals, an energizing/receiving...     

A real-time ultrasonic imaging system includes a display which is compensated for the non-ideal characteristics of the search beam profile. Echo responsive electrical signals are provided to a preprogrammed computing means for being processed to compensate for the characteristics of the test probe. The...     

There is disclosed an ultrasonic tomography apparatus of electronic scanning type in which an array of ultrasonic transducer elements are excited with desired time delays allotted for the transducer elements thereby to transmit and receive ultrasonic beams at a deflection angle corresponding to the desired...     

An array of transducers is focussed by insertion of a means for providing a small variable delay between each transducer and a selected tap on a master delay line.

A B-scan ultrasonic imager produces a rectilinear image and has a linear transducer array with only one switch per element. Individual elements or overlapping transmit subarrays are selected sequentially to generate pulses of ultra-sound. Received echo signals are sequentially sent down a long shift...     

An improvement to a pulse-echo ultrasonic-imaging system employing an acoustic focusing device occupying a fixed aperture to both illuminate internal structure of a visually opaque object with a scanning focused beam of ultrasonic energy and for returning a reflected signal portion of the scanning focused...     

An improved pulse-echo ultrasonic-imaging system for scanning, in real time, objects such as soft tissue within a living human body. It employs a transducer including first and second parallel wave-energy generating electrodes extending linearly in a first direction and a linear array of image-spot detecting...     

In an ultrasonic investigating apparatus a transducer can receive reflections from points in the body for which the position in one direction is relatively well known as a result of accurate range gating but for which the position in another direction is relatively less known in view of the relatively...     

Non-destructive testing with ultrasonic energy is performed by scanning a focused ultrasound beam until a region of interest is detected and rescanning this region with the beam focused at a plurality of depths. Apparatus for ultrasonic body scanning for medical purposes may include an actively driven...     

An array of transducers is provided for transmitting pulses of ultrasonic pressure waves into a body and translating reflections received into corresponding pulses of electrical waves. Phase changing means, which may preferably include heterodyning means, are connected between each transducer and selected...     

An echoscope for examination of objects with the aid of an ultrasound beam, comprising at least one electro-acoustic element for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic pulses during a transmission-reception period divided into n consecutive time intervals. The ultrasonic pulses are sent to the objects...     

An ultrasonic scanner for producing a sector scan in an object to be examined in which one or more ultrasonic transducers traverse an arcuate path with respect to a reflector which is positioned to receive the ultrasonic waves scanning the surface of the reflector from each of the transducers and converge...     

An acoustic imaging system for displaying an object viewed by a moving array of transducers as the array is pivoted about a fixed point within a given plane. A plurality of transducers are fixedly positioned and equally spaced within a laterally extending array and operatively directed to transmit and...     

An imaging system, particularly useful for acoustic medical diagnosis of a human subject, utilizes an array of radiating elements or sonic transducers located side-by-side and positioned along the subject. Signals received by the transducer are applied to a pair of pattern generation circuits which weight...     

An ultrasonic transducer probe having a sealed rotor housing, a plurality of transducers mounted on a rotor disposed in said housing. A rotor shaft mounts the rotor and extends through the housing. A drive assembly including commutating and position indicating means receives said housing and rotor shaft...     

Ultrasonic phased array method and apparatus for the static or dynamic investigation of structures, such as organs of the body, or intra-uterine detail, wherein ultrasonic echo pulses, reflected back from a testpiece to one or a group of adjacent transducers of a linear transducer array, are converted...     

A real time ultrasound imaging system which includes coherent demodulation of echo signals followed by time delay and coherent summation of the demodulated signals is described. As the range from which echoes are being received increases, coherent demodulation is maintained. Demodulation and time delay...     

A real time ultrasound imaging system provided with a fixed focus and including coherent demodulation of echo signals followed by time delay and coherent summation of the demodulated signals is described. As the range from which echoes are being received increases, coherent demodulation is maintained....     

A B-scan ultrasound probe imaging system including an array of annular transducers is described in which dynamic focussing is provided by coherent demodulation of the echo signals generated in the transducers. As the range from which echoes are being received increases, coherent demodulation is maintained....     

A real time ultrasound imaging system which includes coherent demodulation of echo signals followed by time delay and coherent summation of the demodulated signals is described. As the range from which echoes are being received increases, coherent demodulation is maintained. Demodulation and time delay...     

The combination of a "C" mode scan electronics in a portable, battery powered biomedical ultrasonoscope having "A" and "M" mode scan electronics, the latter including a clock generator for generating clock pulses, a cathode ray tube having X, Y and Z axis inputs, a sweep generator connected between the...     

A steered beam B-scan ultrasonic imaging system has a linear transducer array divisible into multiple sub-arrays of transducer elements each operable to perform a sector scan, with the origin points displaced longitudinally along the array between sector scans. The system performs overlapping sector...     

An electrical-to-acoustic wave transducer contains an array of piezoelectric elements connected to wave-delay circuits to generate a directed acoustic beam and to receive a similarly directed, reflected beam. The distance of a reflecting object is sensed by the time delay of the reflected wave. The apparatus...     

An object surrounded by media of differing acoustical impedances (e.g., an anatomical organ surrounded by other kinds of tissue within the human body) is acoustically imaged by an array of ultrasonic transducers affixed to the outer surface of an ultrasonic lens. In a preferred embodiment, the lens is...     

An ultrasonic diagnosing apparatus effects high speed ultrasonic scanning of a subject to be examined and produces and records a plurality of closely spaced, planar B-mode tomographic images. The diagnosing apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe having a linear array of ultrasonic converters, a mechanical...     

This specification discloses an apparatus for scanning acoustic waves in accordance with the movement of a presumed axis moving on a certain surface (plane or curved). This apparatus has a multiplicity of acoustic transducer elements arrayed in the direction of movement of the presumed axis (scanning...     

A probe unit including a plurality of ultrasonic fault detection probes is moved along an object to be examined by a probe drive unit. The fault detection signals produced by the probes are transfer switched among a plurality of channels of a channel selector and the output of the channel selector is...     

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus is provided comprising a clock pulse generator, and electro-acoustic transducer which responds to the clock pulse from the clock pulse generator to produce an ultrasonic wave, a receiving circuit for receiving the electrical signal from the electro-acoustic transducer,...     

In an ultrasonic investigating apparatus a transducer can receive reflections from points in the body for which the position in one direction is relatively well known as a result of accurate range gating but for which the position in another direction is relatively less known in view of the relatively...     

A ring of transmitter and receiver transducer arrays circumbscribes an object to be scanned. Semicircular wave fronts of ultrasound energy are propagated from different points around the ring of transducers by triggering the transmitter arrays in sequence. The reflected and transmitted ultrasound energy...     

A variable delay system in which multistage delay lines are "shared" between different elements (e.g. different transducer elements or segments). A plurality of delay lines are provided, the delay lines having respectively different numbers of stages. The signals from the first and last segments of a...     

An imaging system, particularly useful for acoustic medical diagnosis of a human subject, utilizes an array of radiating elements or sonic transducers located side-by-side and positioned along the subject. Signals received by the transducer are applied to a pair of pattern generation circuits which weight...     

In a rotating probe ultrasonic system the effective PRF may not be sufficiently high for certain purposes, such as examination of the foetal heart. The invention combines fixed transducers looking at a limited region with a rotating probe scanning over a larger region to give a higher effective PRF in...     

In an ultrasonic transducer probe having multiple rotating transducer elements the transducer outputs are switched in response to sine and cosine signals from a resolver. The same signals are used to switch and time the display scan. If the transducers are misaligned a multiple blurred image may result....     

In an ultrasound transmitting or receiving apparatus, a plurality of ultrasound transducer elements comprising an ultrasound probe are arranged along a line to transmit and receive ultrasonic waves. For the purpose of sequentially transmitting and receiving an ultrasound beam through the transducer elements,...     

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...     

An ultrasonic transducer system comprising a transducer array, control circuit and display system wherein the control system is able to actuate the transducer elements in groups of N and N+1 elements, actuate the groups in non-sequential order, actuate groups of selectively different sizes, subject the...     

An instrument for viscoelastic measurement, particularly for breast palpation, uses a plurality of spaced elongated electret strips which are pressed into the body being examined by a pressure member which applies a given periodic or steady stress to the tissue beneath the electret strips. Electronic...     

Echo ranging flaw detecting, characterizing and studying apparatus in which the work is scanned simultaneously by acoustic energy focused at a point from an acoustic-lens transducer and by acoustic energy focused along a line along which it is propagated from a focused-arc transducer. The acoustical...     

Apparatus for the ultrasonic examination of an object comprises: means for transmitting pulses of ultrasonic energy along a plurality of beams into the object and receiving echoes of the pulses reflected along the beams by acoustic impedance discontinuities within the object, the means directing the...     

An ultrasonic diagnostic equipment of linear electric scanning type includes a plurality of pulse generators for supplying electric pulses to a plurality of ultrasonic transducers disposed on a plane, gate circuits for driving the pulse generator, a plurality of analogue switching circuits for selecting...     

In an ultrasonic imaging system including an array of ultrasonic oscillators, ultrasonic beams are electronically scanned by sequentially selecting a plurality of oscillator sets for beam transmission and reception. For one transmission of ultrasonic waves, at least two receiver oscillator sets having...     

An ultrasonic cross-sectional imaging apparatus comprising an ultrasonic probe, memory means and display means. The probe emits ultrasonic waves in non-interlaced fashion and receives echo data in non-interlaced fashion. The non-interlaced echo data are written into the memory means, read out therefrom...     

A selectable delay system for coupling between a plurality of elements and an input/output terminal, the relative delays between the input/output terminal and the individual elements being selectable under operator control. A single delay line is employed to obtain up to three different effective delay...     

An array of sonic transducers, useful for medical ultrasonic imaging, has individual sections thereof separately coupled for forming separate beams of sonic energy which converge, respectively, to separate foci along a common axis of the beams. The ratio of the diameter of the radiating aperture of the...     

An array of transducer segments is arranged in columns, each of which has a multiplicity of segments. The segments are wired to permit excitation by one or the other of two opposite phases of high-frequency signal, and groups of segments can be excited with the same phase to approximate the shape of...     

An ultrasonic diagnostic method and apparatus are provided for probing the condition in a tissue of a living body by projecting an ultrasonic beam onto the living body from a vibrator array transducer probe consisting of a plurality of tiny ultrasonic vibrators. The apparatus executes two scanning actions,...     

An imaging system, particularly useful for acoustic medical diagonsis of a human subject, utilizes an array of radiating elements or sonic transducers located side-by-side and positioned along the subject. Signals received by the transducer are applied to a pair of pattern generation circuits which weight...     

An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus is provided with a plurality of phased array transducer elements arranged in a row. The number of simultaneously driven transducer elements is changed in response to a rate pulse to increase the ultrasonic scanning line density without increasing the number of the transducer...     

An electronic scanning ultrasonic diagnostic system comprising a probe having ultrasonic beam emitting surface, in which plural ultrasonic wave transducers are convexly arranged at equal distances, emitting desired sector scanning ultrasonic beams, a transmitting and receiving wave control circuit dividing...     

An ultrasonic imaging device comprises transducers distributed along a line and operable at a frequency f. A generator delivers electrical pulses to time delay means which provide, in response to each electrical pulse, a plurality of low level pulses delayed by increased time delays in a number lower...     

In an exemplary embodiment, the transducer elements are arranged in rows and columns, the transducer elements bein contacted at both sides by oppositely disposed contact surfaces, and switches being associated with the contacts of the one contact surface as well as with the contacts of the other contact...     

An electronic linear scan mode and an electronic sector scan mode are selectively used individually or in combination under the control of a mode selection means provided for determining a scan mode for an ultrasonic probe consisting of a plurality of ultrasonic transducers the ultrasonic wave transmission...     

A container closure comprising a cylindrically shaped, resilient, distortable membrane having a first terminal end fully affixed to the periphery of a first closure body providing a discharge aperture of predetermined size and a second terminal end fully affixed to a second coacting closure body coaxially...     

In an ultrasonic diagnostic equipment which irradiates a subject with ultrasonic waves and receives reflected waves responsive thereto so as to provide a tomogram of the subject on the basis of the received signals, two tap-changing type phased arrays having different focal sections are alternately operated...     

In an exemplary embodiment, an ultrasonic array has an installation for dynamic focusing at least in the transmitting mode. It is the object of the disclosure to avoid excessively great time loss, and yet to permit dynamic focusing also in the transmitting mode. This object is achieved in that, in the...     

In an exemplary embodiment, an ultrasonic applicator for line-by-line ultrasonic scanning supplies echo signals to a device for displaying a layer image. The aim of the disclosure is to produce an imaging system which does not cause any coupling problems in any position of the application location; in...     

An ultrasound multi-electrode transducer together with electrical control means in which a central circular section and at least one annular peripheral section are successively electrically connected during transmit and receive functions so as to provide an increased focal zone.

To detect motion of an object, a repetitive video signal representative of the object at successive points in time is generated. At least a portion of successive repetitions of the video signal is integrated. The successive integrations are compared with each other. The integrated portion is preferably...     

An ultrasonic transducer arrangement having ultrasonic oscillators, with which electronic delay chains are associated, includes a matrix of column-like ultrasonic oscillators the end faces of which are each connected to control electrodes arranged in the planes of the flat sides of the matrix. On one...     

An ultrasonic diagnosing apparatus comprising a probe for radiating ultrasonic wave beams toward a target and converting ultrasonic echo data reflected from the target into electrical signals indicative of a tomogram of the target, an ultrasonic wave transmission and reception circuit for controlling...     

Either a linear array ultrasound transducer or a phased array transducer is constrained to scan along a body in a single plane to derive data for enabling simultaneous display of static and real-time ultrasound images.

In an ultrasonic wave tomographic imaging system wherein an acoustic image in an object is focused on the ultrasonic wave receiving means by means of an ultrasonic wave lens in order to pick up an image of the desired tomographic plane in the object, the clearness of a tomographic plane image is much...     

An ultrasonic diagnostic system for observing the state within a measured object by transmitting ultrasonic waves to the interior of a measured object such as the human body and by receiving acoustic waves reflected from the object. The system employs plural probe units which contain electric-acoustic...     

The echo signals from ultrasonic transducer elements are filtered by a plurality of prestage band pass filters having different central frequencies and frequency pass bands. The filtered echo signals from those band pass filters are composed by an adder into a composite echo signal. This composite echo...     

An ultrasonic imaging apparatus has an array (10 or 100) of transducer elements (14 or 104) for transmitting ultrasonic signals into an object (12) to be analyzed through use of the transmitted signals reflected from the object and sensed by the apparatus. The transmitted signals have a first predetermined...     

The ultrasonographer changes the frequency of ultrasound pulses emitted from an ultrasonic transducer as a result of adjusting the RF frequency of the transmitter burst exciting the broadband transducer; this adjustment takes place between pulse transmissions, while examining the patient. In a phased...     

An ultrasonic scanning apparatus includes a transducer plate, a plurality of elongated, parallel driving line electrodes arranged on one surface of the transducer plate and a plurality of elongated, parallel grounding line electrodes arranged on the opposite surface of said transducer plate. The driving...     

The transmitter comprises an array of electro-acoustic transducers (1), each of which is connected to an oscillator circuit (9) which has a start input (11). The start inputs (11) successively receive start signals from a start signal generator (13) which comprises a number of comparators (15), each...     

In an exemplary embodiment, a transducer element row W.sub.1 through W.sub.m has a signal delay device for the delay of arriving echo signals in such a manner that phase balance of the individual signals result at the output. It is the objective of the disclosure to construct such an apparatus with which,...     

A probe is provided which comprises a plurality of ultrasonic transducer elements, and is so arranged as to be capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving ultrasonic beams of plural frequencies. Means is provided for changing the shapes of the effective acoustic field of the ultrasonic beams...     

A plurality of transducers is arranged successively on a common impedance matching layer of a resilient material. Each transducer comprises an elongated piezoelectric element having a width expansion vibrational mode, a pair of first and second electrodes attached to opposite surfaces of the element...     

The invention relates to an ultrasonic imaging system for diagnostic use or non-destructive testing. The system comprises a first array of ultrasonic transducers coupled to the object space wherein objects under examination are located or distributed; a second array of ultrasonic transducers coupled...     

Multi-channel automatic on-line ultrasonic inspection system for real time high-speed pulse echo testing is done across the width of a hot moving workpiece, such as steel plates and the like. In addition to a multiplexed transducer array search unit, the system includes an adjustable ultrasound fluid...     

An ultrasonic probe (1) for use with ultrasonic imaging apparatus for investigating the internal structure of a body contains a pair of pulse echo receivers (RA1, RB1; RA2, RB2; . . . ) for each pulse transmitter in a linear array of transmitters (T1, T2, . . . ). The two receivers (A,B) in each pair...     

An ultrasound tomography device for scanning an object under examination from a plurality of directions. Coronal slice images of the plane areas near or at the female breast wall are obtained. Ultrasound lobes from ultrasound transducers are electronically directed or mechanically positioned to obliquely...     

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus comprising, a pulser, a transducer connected to the pulser, which is driven by drive pulses from the pulser to radiate ultrasound wave toward an object and to receive echoes returned from the object to convert the echoes into electrical signals, the thickness of the...     

The device comprises n spaced transducers associated with a generator through phase-shift means. These means are formed by members (66) for supplying, on different channels and from the same pulse of the generator, pulses with different time delays. Amplifiers are each associated with a transducer and...     

A variable delay memory system (200) has an addressable memory means (66-1) having a data input port and a data output port. A counter (206) is connected to supply a write address on bus (212) for storage of data supplied to the data input port on bus (64-1). A subtracter means (214) is connected to...     

An ultrasonic system for non-destructive testing in industry and for visualizing soft tissue structure in medical diagnosis using a coaxial transducer array formed of a plurality of annular transducer elements each having the same predetermined area. The area of each of the transducer elements and the...     

An ultrasound imaging system particularly adapted for detecting structure which reflects ultrasound at a variety of angles. There is a plurality of ultrasound transducers, which may be a linear array or a two-dimension array with the various horizontal rows of the array offset from one another, but having...     

An electronic scan type ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus for forming a tomographic image of a patient body is disclosed. In order to focus ultrasonic waves emitted from a probe having an array of electroacoustic oscillators, driving pulses are delayed by a surface wave delay device. The delay device has...     

An ultrasound visualization system, and certain aspects of the electronics that are incorporated therein. A scan conversion system which includes means for converting the ultrasound scan signal into a stream of single bit digital data in which each bit is indicative of the relative amplitude of the ultrasound...     

An ultrasound visualization system, and certain aspects of the electronics that are incorporated therein. A scan conversion system which includes means for converting the ultrasound scan signal into a stream of single bit digital data in which each bit is indicative of the relative amplitude of the ultrasound...     

An ultrasonic microscope displays an ultrasonic wave image of a sample relatively and two-dimensionally scanned with respect to an ultrasonic wave beam transmitted from and focused by a transducer including a piezoelectric element and an acoustic lens. The F number of the acoustic lens is variably changeable...     

An ultrasonic transducer in which a plurality of elements are employed alternate ones of which are utilized as transmitters and receivers and having the same area but in which the transmitter elements are composed of material having a high transmit sensitivity while the receiver elements are composed...     

A phased-array receiver used in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus or the like for appropriately varying the phases of the output voltages from transducer elements receiving ultrasonic waves and for summing these voltages to change the directional or other characteristics of ultrasonic waves. The receiver...     

Ultrasonic imaging apparatus including ultrasonic transducers for emitting acoustic wave beams of various apertures, apparatus for directing two acoustic wave beams of substantially different focussing distances on the same beam direction, circuitry for receiving the reflected waves corresponding to...     

The invention involves an ultrasonic tomography device having an ultrasonic transmitting and receiving system for scanning an object under examination from different angles line by line, a fluid tank for immersing the object to be examined, a cover for the fluid tank with a round opening in the center...     

In an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus using an array type transducer probe, wherein improved tomographic image resolution is desired by electronically focusing ultrasonic wave toward an object to be examined in both directions, i.e., the array direction and the lens direction. During first scanning of...