An ultrasonic transducer includes: a laminate in which a plurality of acoustic members is laminated; and an adhesive layer that includes a silane coupling agent and an adhesive, the adhesive layer joining any two of the plurality of acoustic members to each other, wherein the silane coupling agent has a structure represented by general formula (1):

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wherein R.sub.1s each independently represent a methoxy group or an ethoxy group, R.sub.2 represents a methoxy group, an ethoxy group, or a hydrogen atom, X represents a linear or branched organic chain having 4 or more continuous carbon atoms, and A represents a reactive functional group.

A rotational intravascular ultrasound probe for insertion into a vasculature and a method of manufacturing the same. The rotational intravascular ultrasound probe comprises an elongate catheter having a flexible body and an elongate transducer shaft disposed within the flexible body. The transducer shaft comprises a proximal end portion, a distal end portion, a drive shaft extending from the proximal end portion to the distal end portion, an ultrasonic transducer disposed near the distal end portion for obtaining a circumferential image through rotation, and a transducer housing molded to the drive shaft and the ultrasonic transducer.

An ultrasonic endoscope system has an ultrasonic endoscope including an ultrasound transducer provided in a distal end part body, and a balloon for an ultrasonic endoscope that covers an outside surface of the ultrasound transducer, the balloon for an ultrasonic endoscope has an opening portion that is provided at one end in a first direction corresponding to a longitudinal direction of an insertion part and that is attached to the distal end part body, and includes a swelling portion that stores an ultrasonic wave transmission medium inside to be swellable, and a fixing portion that is in close contact with and fixed to the distal end part body, the distal end part body includes standing wall portions on both sides of the ultrasound transducer in a direction perpendicular to the first direction, and at least the fixing portion is in close contact with and fixed to the standing wall portion by contractile force of the fixing portion.

Systems and methods are provided whereby a directional property of an ultrasound transducer element, such as a steering direction, is controlled according to a first driving waveform that is delivered to opposing propagation electrodes and a second driving waveform that is delivered to opposing lateral electrodes. The directional property may be controlled according a phase difference and/or relative amplitude between the first and second driving waveforms, and/or the selective actuation of one or more lateral electrodes when the lateral electrodes are defined in an array. The ultrasound transducer element may be a ring-shaped transducer element and a directional property associated with a focal region may be controlled. In some example embodiments, array elements of an ultrasound transducer array may each include propagation and lateral electrodes, with each array element being driven by respective first and second driving waveforms to focus the ultrasound energy emitted by the ultrasound transducer array.

Various methods and systems are provided for a multi-frequency transducer array. In one example, the transducer array may be fabricated via a wafer scale approach, where a first comb structure, with a first type of element, is formed by dicing a first acoustic stack and a second comb structure, with a second type of element, is formed by dicing a second acoustic stack. Combining the first and second comb structures may form a multi-frequency transducer array.

A universal ultrasound device having an ultrasound probe includes a semiconductor die; a plurality of ultrasonic transducers integrated on the semiconductor die, the plurality of ultrasonic transducers configured to operate a first mode associated with a first frequency range and a second mode associated with a second frequency range, wherein the first frequency range is at least partially non-overlapping with the second frequency range; and control circuitry configured to: control the plurality of ultrasonic transducers to generate and/or detect ultrasound signals having frequencies in the first frequency range, in response to receiving an indication to operate the ultrasound probe in the first mode; and control the plurality of ultrasonic transducers to generate and/or detect ultrasound signals having frequencies in the second frequency range, in response to receiving an indication to operate the ultrasound probe in the second mode.

Intraluminal imaging devices that include multiple conductor segments having conductors (312, 316) of different sizes at particular locations along the length of the intraluminal imaging device are provided. For example, the intraluminal imaging device may include a cable (310) comprising a proximal portion and a distal portion, an electrical connector (314) coupled to the proximal portion of the cable, and a flexible elongate member (320) comprising a proximal portion and a distal portion. A first plurality of conductors extends within the cable and a second plurality of conductors extends within the flexible elongate member. Each conductor of the first plurality of conductors is electrically coupled to a respective conductor of the second plurality of conductors. A conductor of the first plurality of conductors having a first cross section is electrically coupled to a conductor of the second plurality of conductors having a second cross section that is smaller than the first cross section.

The present disclosure relates to a method for determining a relative position between arrays of a flexible array device. The flexible array device according to an embodiment includes a plurality of arrays arranged at a predetermined interval in a deformable substrate, and the method includes measuring the first capacitance between adjacent arrays, measuring the second capacitance between the adjacent arrays after deformation of the substrate, and determining a relative position between the adjacent arrays based on the first capacitance measurement value and the second capacitance measurement value. According to an embodiment, the relative position between the arrays may be determined by measuring the capacitance between the adjacent arrays of the plurality of arrays arranged in the deformable substrate and measuring a change in capacitance caused by the deformation (contraction, relaxation, bending) of the substrate.

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes a two-dimensional (2D) array ultrasound probe configured to emit focused beams onto focusing points and detect echo signals; and a processor configured to determine the focusing points on a cross-section of interest and acquire shear wave elasticity data with respect to the cross-section of interest based on the detected echo signals.

An acoustic lens contains a base material composed of a diorganopolysiloxane or a silicone rubber compound utilizing a diorganopolysiloxane as a main component, and plate-like inorganic compound particles dispersed in the base material.