Micromachined ultrasonic transducers having pressure ports are described. The micromachined ultrasonic transducers may comprise flexible membranes configured to vibrate over a cavity. The cavity may be sealed, in some instances by the membrane itself. A pressure port may provide access to the cavity, and thus control of the cavity pressure. In some embodiments, an ultrasound device including an array of micromachined ultrasonic transducers is provided, with pressure ports for at least some of the ultrasonic transducers. The pressure ports may be used to control pressure across the array.

Disclosed are systems for directing flexural waves acting upon a structure. In one example, a system includes a beam and a pair of scatterers disposed on the beam and configured to induce a flexural wave on the beam when actuated at a frequency. The system is configured to direct a direction of travel of the flexural wave acting on the beam based on the width of the beam, the distance between the scatterers forming the pair of scatterers, and/or a phase difference between the actuation of the pair of scatterers.

The present disclosure includes methods for evaluating the bending stiffness of high aspect ratio nanosized structures. One example method for evaluating a bending stiffness of high aspect ratio nanosized structures arranged in a plurality of test patterns produced by lithography and etching in a respective plurality of different areas of a semiconductor substrate, where each test pattern includes a regular array of the high aspect ratio nanosized structures, includes scanning the regular arrays in the plurality of test patterns by an electron beam produced according to a same set of beam conditions for each array. The method also includes deriving images of the regular arrays in the respective test patterns by electron beam microscopy. Additionally, the method includes determining from each of the images an e-beam induced collapse rate representative of a percentage of structures in each array that have collapsed under an influence of the electron beam scanning.

A transducer array (802) includes at least one 1D array of transducing elements (804). The at least one 1D array of transducing elements includes a plurality of transducing elements (904). A first of the plurality of transducing elements has a first apodization and a second of the plurality of transducing elements has a second apodization. The first apodization and the second apodization are different. The transducer array further includes at least one electrically conductive element (910) in electrical communication with each of the plurality of transducing elements. The transducer array further includes at least one electrical contact (906) in electrical communication with the at least one electrically conductive element. The at least one electrical contact concurrently addresses the plurality of transducing elements through the at least one electrically conductive element.

One or more systems, devices, computer-implemented methods and/or computer program products of use provided herein relate to ultrasound coexistence in an FMS. A system can comprise a memory that can store computer-executable components. The system can further comprise a processor that can execute the computer-executable components stored in the memory, wherein the computer-executable components can comprise a frequency generation component that can use a variable frequency generator circuitry to generate electronic signals at one or more different frequencies in at least one fetal sensor device (FSD) of a fetal monitoring system (FMS), wherein the electronic signals can cause a transducer of the at least one FSD to generate ultrasound signals at the one or more different frequencies.

An assembly including: a printed circuit board (PCB) having a first surface and a second surface; at least one energy transmitter mounted on the first surface; at least one cooling element associated with the PCB second surface, wherein the cooling element is configured to cool the at least one energy transmitter via the PCB.

An ultrasonic transducer is described that includes a stack of at least two membranes attached to a substrate. An electric circuit is coupled to the electrodes with a controller configured to apply a first electric signal to a first electrode on the first membrane, and a different, second electric signal to a second electrode on the second membrane. The first and second electric signals are configured to apply a varying voltage between the first electrode and the second electrode during a respective vibration cycle of the membranes. The first electrode on the first membrane is configured to interact with the second electrode on the second membrane by a varying electrostatic force during the respective vibration cycle depending on the varying voltage.

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to an embodiment has transmitting and receiving circuitry that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves, and processing circuitry. The transmitting and receiving circuitry is configured to perform first beamforming processing on reflected wave signals output from a plurality of transducer elements that receive reflected waves and perform second beamforming processing different from the first beamforming processing on the reflected wave signals. The processing circuitry is configured to calculate an evaluation value of spatial correlation of the reflected wave signals and perform third beamforming processing based on a first processing result that is a processing result of the first beamforming processing, a second processing result that is a processing result of the second beamforming processing, and the evaluation value.

Disclosed is an integrated modular multi-tone piezoelectric element driver for pressure generation comprising a first layer and a second layer. The first layer comprises analog oscillators, a first voltage-controlled amplifier, a first lever shifter and a summer to generate a multi-tone waveform. The second layer comprises a second voltage-controlled amplifier, a second level shifter, one or more operational amplifiers, a third level shifter, a fourth level shifter, one or more high impedance amplifiers and a high impedance amplifier to generate four amplified signals for controlling a pressure.

A multilayer board includes: a front-side layer; an intermediate layer; a back-side layer; the front-side layer; a first ground terminal and a second ground terminal for connecting ground lines of a plurality of shield lines to be connected to the multilayer board; a plurality of signal line connecting terminal arrays each including a plurality of signal line connecting terminals for connecting respective signal lines of the shield lines; and a wire having a thermal conductivity, the wire extending to the second end on the intermediate layer.