A hand-held ultrasound system includes integrated electronics within an ergonomic housing. The electronics includes control circuitry, beamforming and circuitry transducer drive circuitry. The electronics communicate with a host computer using an industry standard high speed serial bus. The ultrasonic imaging system is operable on a standard, commercially available, user computing device without specific hardware modifications, and is adapted to interface with an external application without modification to the ultrasonic imaging system to allow a user to gather ultrasonic data on a standard user computing device such as a PC, and employ the data so gathered via an independent external application without requiring a custom system, expensive hardware modifications, or system rebuilds. An integrated interface program allows such ultrasonic data to be invoked by a variety of such external applications having access to the integrated interface program via a standard, predetermined platform such as visual basic or c++.

A transducer assembly operable to transmit ultrasonic energy in a desired direction towards a zone adapted to be acoustically coupled to an object or area of interest is disclosed which has a transducer layer, a backing material disposed behind the transducer layer with respect to the desired direction, and a back-matching layer disposed between the transducer layer and the backing material to reflect towards the transducer layer part of the ultrasonic energy directed from the transducer layer to the backing material. The backing layer has an acoustic impedance higher than the acoustic impedance of the back-matching layer. The back-matching material has an impedance less than the impedance of the transducer layer and the transducer layer has a thickness greater than a ¼ of the wavelength of the ultrasound waves the assembly is configured to generate. A process for manufacturing a transducer assembly is also disclosed.

According to one embodiment, an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus includes a transmitter/receiver and processing circuitry. The transmitter/receiver sequentially transmits a first transmission beam group and a second transmission beam group and receives at least one reception beam for each transmission beam, via an ultrasound probe having a plurality of transducers arranged along an azimuth direction and an elevation direction. The processing circuitry combines a first reception beam based on a first transmission beam included in the first transmission beam group and a second reception beam based on a second transmission beam included in the second transmission beam group. Transmission beams that are adjacent to each other in the azimuth direction or the elevation direction belong to transmission beam groups that are different from each other.

A piezoelectric actuator includes: a vibrating plate including a first surface configured to close an opening provided in a substrate and also including a second surface including a plurality of piezoelectric elements; a suppressing portion configured to suppress vibration of the vibrating plate; and a plurality of walls sticking out into the opening from the first surface, in which, when an active portion of a piezoelectric element is set as a portion where a first electrode, a piezoelectric layer, and a second electrode overlap, the walls are provided between adjacent active portions in plan view from a direction in which the first electrode, the piezoelectric layer, and the second electrode are stacked, and a distance between adjacent walls is longer than a distance between adjacent active portions in a plane perpendicular to the stacking direction.

A system and related methods for performing nerve detection during surgical access using ultrasound testing during surgery.

This device (2) for generating ultrasonic waves in a target region of a soft solid, includes at least two ultrasound sources (32), light sources (40) distributed around a central axis (X2) of the device (2), for enlightening a zone of the soft solid via subsurface scattering, and a video camera (50), for capturing images of the zone enlightened by the lighting means. The ultrasound source (32), the light sources (40) and the video camera (50) are mounted on a body of the device (20) and oriented toward a common target zone which includes a focal point of the ultrasound sources (32). A boresight of the video camera is aligned on the central axis (X2).

Systems and methods of transmitting heat away from an ultrasound probe are disclosed within. In one embodiment, a handheld ultrasound probe includes a transducer, electronics configured to drive the transducer, and a housing surrounding the transducer assembly and the electronics. A slot extending from a first side of the housing to a second side of the housing and can allow air to pass adjacent transducer and the electronics. The slot can be sized to inhibit accessibility of an operator's finger to an inner surface of slot.

Disclosed is a blood flow measurement apparatus using Doppler ultrasound. The apparatus includes a two-dimensional transducer array in which a plurality of transducers are two-dimensionally arranged, an acoustic window detection portion configured to transmit and receive ultrasonic signals by driving some of the plurality of transducers, to detect Doppler signals, and to confirm a transducer corresponding to a Doppler signal having high intensity among the detected Doppler signals, a blood flow detection portion configured to detect Doppler signals with respect to a plurality of steering vectors through beam steering using a plurality of adjacent transducers including the confirmed transducer and configured to confirm a steering vector corresponding to a Doppler signal having highest intensity among the detected Doppler signals, and a Doppler processing portion configured to detect a Doppler signal by performing beam steering using the confirmed steering vector and to obtain blood flow information from the detected Doppler signal.

An intraoperative ultrasound imaging system and method capable of using ultrasound imaging to safely place a surgical access instrument (e.g. guide wire, dilator, cannula, etc.) through a tissue (e.g., muscle, fat, brain, liver, lung, etc.) without damaging nearby neurovascular structure is described herein. The intraoperative ultrasound system includes an ultrasound probe assembly configured for emitting and receiving ultrasound waves and a computer system including a processor and a display unit. Once the probe is in position, ultrasound imaging is performed wherein the computer receives RF data from the probe and causes a B-mode image of the visible anatomical structures (e.g. muscle, bone, etc.) to be displayed on the display unit.

Provided is an ultrasonic endoscope with which it is possible to prevent damage to an imaging element even in a case where voltage from an external power supply is directly applied. A distal end portion main body (43) of an ultrasonic endoscope (10) is formed of a resin material, the distal end portion main body (43) includes an illumination system (53) that includes an illumination metal base (156), a first fixing member (170) that fixes the illumination metal base (156) to the distal end portion main body (43), a first insert hole (172) into which the first fixing member (170) is inserted, an observation system (55) that includes a lens barrel (160), a second fixing member (174) that fixes the lens barrel (160) to the distal end portion main body (43), a second insert hole (176) into which the second fixing member (174) is inserted, and an electrical connection member (178) that electrically connects the illumination metal base (156) and the lens barrel (160), and at least one of the illumination metal base (156), the lens barrel (160), or the electrical connection member (178) is connected to a ground.