An ultrasonic generator for a transducer is provided. The ultrasonic generator includes a function generator and a controller. The function generator is in signal communication with the transducer. The controller is in signal communication with the function generator and cooperates with the function generator to facilitate generation of a drive signal from the function generator to the transducer. An amplifier module is in signal communication with the function generator to amplify the drive signal.

A MEMS sound transducer element is operable in an audio and an ultrasonic range. The MEMS sound transducer element includes a first electrode structure, wherein a conductive material of the first electrode structure includes a plurality of electrically isolated electrode segments, and a second electrode structure spaced apart from the first electrode structure, wherein the first electrode structure and the second electrode structure are operable as an audio sound transducer. A first subset of the plurality of electrically isolated electrode segments of the first electrode structure is, in conjunction with the second electrode structure, operable as an ultrasonic or audio emitter, and a second subset of the plurality of the electrically isolated electrode segments of the first electrode structure is, in conjunction with the second electrode structure, operable as an ultrasonic or audio receiver.

An ultrasound machine for generating push-pulses to excite shear wave stimulation employs separated angled beams that converge at the target region to generate the push-pulses. In one embodiment, the beams are modulated by a set of apodization functions to reduce side lobes caused by the narrowing of the apertures of the beam as well as transducer heating by reducing the average energy deposited in each transducer element.

An ultrasonic array oscillator according to the present technology includes ultrasonic oscillators and semiconductor chips. The ultrasonic oscillators form an array. The semiconductor chips are bonded to the respective ultrasonic oscillators to form impedance matching circuits.

An ultrasound system has a set of CMUT ultrasound transducer devices and a drive circuit for operating the ultrasound transducer devices, for delivering an AC drive signal and receiving a reflected signal. An intermediate circuit is between the drive circuit and the set of ultrasound devices in the form of an array of coupling circuits, each coupling circuit between the drive circuit and an associated at least one ultrasound transducer device. Each coupling circuit comprises a buffer element connected between a bias voltage and a device terminal and as series capacitor. The intermediate circuit serves as a connection link between the set of CMUT transducer elements and the driving/sensing electronics, and is formed as a passive integrated technology circuit. The buffer element prevents a low-impedance short between the CMUT cell bias node and the counter electrode in the case of a CMUT cell drum short circuit. In this way, failure of an individual cell will not cause a breakdown of the whole CMUT array nor a breakdown of the driving electronics.

An ultrasonic imaging system is described in which a column-row-parallel architecture is provided at the circuit level of an ultrasonic transceiver. The ultrasonic imaging system can include a NM array of transducer elements and a plurality of transceiver circuits where each transceiver circuit is connected to a corresponding one transducer element of the NM array of transducer elements. A shared pulser gate driver and a shared VGA is provided for each row and column. Selection logic includes row select, column select, and per-element bit select. Through the column-row-parallel architecture, a variety of aperture configurations can be achieved.

An ultrasound imaging system includes a transducer array. The array is configured for row-column addressing. The array of transducer elements includes a plurality of first 1-D arrays and a plurality of second 1-D arrays, which is orthogonal to the plurality of first 1-D arrays. The array of transducer elements further includes a plurality of front-end circuits. A single front-end circuit of the front-end circuits is in electrical communication with a single pair of 1-D arrays, which consists of a first 1-D array of the plurality of first 1-D arrays and a second 1-D array of the plurality of second 1-D arrays. The first and second 1-D arrays are either separate sets of 1-D arrays or part of a same 2-D array. In one instance, for N rows and N columns, a number of electrical connections between the elements and front-end electronics are less than 2N.

An ultrasonic transducer device for use in an acoustic biometric imaging system, the ultrasonic transducer device comprising: a first piezoelectric element having a first face, a second face opposite the first face, and side edges extending between the first face and the second face; a first transducer electrode on the first face of the first piezoelectric element; a second transducer electrode on the second face of the first piezoelectric element; and a spacer structure leaving at least a portion of the first transducer electrode of the first piezoelectric element uncovered.

Ultrasound devices including piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs) are described. Frequency tunable PMUT arrays are provided. The PMUTs may be formed on the same substrate or a different substrate than an integrated circuit substrate. The PMUTs may be formed in a variety of ways and from various suitable piezoelectric materials.

An apparatus includes an ultrasonic sensor array and a sensor controller. The sensor array includes a plurality of ultrasonic sensor pixels, each sensor pixel including an ultrasonic receiver and a receiver bias electrode and being operable in one or both of a transmit mode of operation or a read mode of operation. The sensor controller is electrically coupled with the receiver bias electrodes. The sensor controller is configured to set, at each sensor pixel, a range gate window (RGW) by modulating a bias voltage applied to the receiver bias electrode and to set, for a first portion of the ultrasonic sensor pixels, a first RGW. The sensor controller is configured to set, for a second portion of the ultrasonic sensor pixels, a second RGW, and establish a first temporal delay between the first RGW and the second RGW.