A surgical system includes an endoscope, a computing device, a vacuum source, and a laser source. The endoscope defines an elongate body having an ultrasound sensor disposed on a distal portion thereof, a first channel defined through the elongate body defining a first aperture extending through the distal portion, a second channel defined through the elongate body defining a second aperture extending through the distal portion and having an optical waveguide disposed therein. The computing device includes a display screen and a processor having a memory storing a software application, which when executed, processes image data captured by the ultrasound sensor and displays a representation of the patient's anatomy on the display screen. The vacuum source is in fluid communication with the first channel to cause a stone to be retained against the distal portion of the endoscope. The laser source is in electromagnetic communication with the optical waveguide.

Aspects of this disclosure relate to driving a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) with a pulse train of unipolar pulses. The CMUT may be electrically excited with a pulse train of unipolar pulses such that the CMUT operates in a continuous wave mode. In some embodiments, the CMUT may have a contoured electrode.

The present disclosure relates to driver circuitry for driving a piezoelectric transducer. The circuitry comprises: a power supply; a reservoir capacitance; switch network circuitry; and control circuitry. The control circuitry is configured to control operation of the switch network circuitry so as to charge the reservoir capacitance from the power supply and to transfer charge between the reservoir capacitance and the piezoelectric transducer.

A phased ultrasonic transducer and method for transmitting sound or ultrasound through a gaseous medium into a solid spectrum with ultrasound beam steering and focusing.

An ultrasonic imaging device includes a plurality of ultrasonic transducers arranged in an array of a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, the array being divided into a plurality of sub-arrays of neighboring transducers, each including a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, the device including, for each sub-array: a single transmit and/or receive circuit; and a combiner selector and/or splitter selector circuit configurable to couple any, alone, of the transducers of the sub-array to the transmit and/or receive circuit of the sub-array, or to simultaneously couple a plurality of the transducers of the sub-array to the transmit and/or receive circuit of the sub-array. The device further includes a control circuit adapted to individually controlling the combiner selector and/or splitter selector circuits of the different sub-arrays.

A micrometric speaker includes a frame, an electromechanical transducer, and a mechanical-acoustic transducer comprising a rigid plate movably mounted in the frame. The electromechanical transducer comprises two piezoelectric actuators and two elastic strips. The frame comprises a central crossmember from which the two strips extend until engaging two lateral coupling edges of the mechanical-acoustic transducer, and the mechanical-acoustic transducer comprises two linearising springs each extending from one of the lateral edges to the rigid plate, to enable, during a deformation of the strips, a movement of the two lateral edges to the central crossmember and reduce the longitudinal constraints applied to the strips during their deformation due to their “recessed-guided” bending configuration.

Various sensors, sensor controllers, and sensor control methods are provided with model-based sideband balancing. In one illustrative embodiment, a controller for a piezoelectric transducer includes a transmitter, a receiver, and a processing circuit coupled to the transmitter and receiver. The processing circuit performs calibration and echo detection, the calibration including: sensing the piezoelectric transducer's phase response as a function of frequency; deriving equivalent circuit parameters for the piezoelectric transducer from the phase response; and determining a sideband imbalance based on one or more of the equivalent circuit parameters. Once the sideband imbalance is identified, the processing circuit may perform echo-detection processing that accounts for the sideband imbalance.

The invention refers to a driving circuit (2) for a piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer (4) in an ultrasonic transducer system (1), comprising: a transformer (21) having at least one primary-side winding (22, 22′, 22″); a switching unit having a semiconductor switch (24′, 24″) connected to the at least one primary-side winding (22, 22′, 22″) via a switched connection (A′, A″); and, a control unit (5) which is configured to alternately apply an operating voltage (U.sub.B) to the at least one primary-side winding (22, 22′, 22″) or to disconnect it therefrom, a protection circuit (25) which is electrically coupled to the switched connection (A′, A″) and which has a Zener diode (ZD1) which limits a switch-off voltage at the switched connection (A′, A″) in terms of magnitude to a limiting voltage (U.sub.G) which corresponds to at least twice the operating voltage.

This patent disclosure relates to an ultrasound transducer including an array of ultrasound transducing elements, a plurality of transducer drive lines. The ultrasound transducer further includes an array of control circuits, wherein each individual control circuit includes a drive switch and a memory element, the drive switch comprising at least one thin-film transistor, the memory element being configured to store and control the state of the drive switch. The ultrasound transducer further configured so each individual ultrasound transducing element of the array of ultrasound transducing elements has one associated control circuit of the array of control circuits and one associated transducer drive line of the plurality of transducer drive lines, and wherein the ultrasound transducer is configured to, for each individual ultrasound transducing element, drive the individual ultrasound transducing element by the associated transducer drive line when the drive switch of the associated control circuit is in the on-state.

A piezoelectric film integrated device include a substrate; a first electrode provided on the substrate; a second electrode provided on the substrate; a first monocrystalline piezoelectric film provided on the first electrode; a second monocrystalline piezoelectric film provided on the second electrode and having a crystal structure different from a crystal structure of the first monocrystalline piezoelectric film; a third electrode provided on the first monocrystalline piezoelectric film; and a fourth electrode provided on the second monocrystalline piezoelectric film.