Various approaches for improving reliability in an ultrasound system having transducer elements, phase transmission lines, and a switch matrix having beamforming switches for connecting the phase transmission lines to the transducer elements involve operating the beamforming switches to avoid “hot” switching as the activation pattern of the transducers changes.

Systems and methods for utilizing a hybrid transmitter in an ultrasound system. A system can include a hybrid transmitter configured to transmit ultrasound waves toward a subject area. The hybrid transmitter can comprise a linear transmitter configured to generate linear transmitter output and a switching transmitter configured to generate switching transmitter output. The hybrid transmitter can also comprise a summer configured to sum the linear transmitter output and the switching transmitter output to generate hybrid transmitter output for driving a transducer load to generate the ultrasound waves transmitted towards the subject area. The ultrasound system can also comprise a receiver configured to receive one or more ultrasound waves from the subject area in response to the ultrasound waves transmitted toward the subject area for generating ultrasound images of the subject area.

A portable ultrasonic imaging probe that is adapted to connect to a host computer via a passive interface cable. The probe includes an array of ultrasound transducers, a high voltage pulser for energizing transducers to emit an ultrasound pulse, analog signal processing circuitry that combines echoes detected by transducers into a single analog echo signal, am analog-to-digital converter that converts the analog echo signal into a digital echo signal; and interface circuitry that transfers the digital echo signal across the passive interface cable to the host computer.

An ultrasonic transducer according to an embodiment includes a piezoelectric layer, a first electrode, a second electrode, a base layer, and a substrate. The first electrode is disposed in a front side of the piezoelectric layer and extends along a first direction. The second electrode is disposed in a back side of the piezoelectric layer and extends along a second direction intersecting with the first direction. The base layer is disposed in a back side of the second electrode. The substrate is disposed in a back side of the base layer. Each of the first electrode and the second electrode includes an overlap portion where the first electrode and the second electrode overlap each other when viewed from the front side of the piezoelectric layer. The substrate is provided with a cavity on a back side of the overlap portion on each of the first electrode and the second electrode. Each of the first electrode and the second electrode has the width of the overlap portion that is larger than the width of a peripheral portion of the overlap portion.

Piezoelectric user interface arrangement comprises a voltage converter for controllably generating voltage waveforms driving one or more piezoelectric elements. The voltage converter has a control input. A controller is coupled to said control input to control an output voltage of said voltage converter. The controller has one or more scaling inputs. The controller forms said control signals to make said output voltage follow a target waveform as a function of time. The controller is configured to scale said target waveform on the basis of scaling information received through said one or more scaling inputs.

A mist supply device configured to decontaminate a target with a proper amount of decontamination agent supplied to the target by converting such agent into a fine mist, and reducing the duration of operations such as aeration to increase decontamination efficiency. The device includes a mist generation means, a mist microparticulating means, and a supply port. The mist generation means converts the decontamination agent into a primary mist and supplies it to the mist microparticulating means, which includes at least one vibration board that is subjected to ultrasonic vibration to generate sound flows from board surfaces by an ultrasound in the vertical direction. The supplied primary mist is subjected to ultrasonic vibration by the sound flows to reduce the primary mist into a secondary mist of smaller size. The generated secondary mist is supplied to the inside of the room through the supply port.

A method is provided for measuring a flow rate of a fluid. The method incudes emitting a periodic signal from a first ultrasonic transductor, where the periodic signal is emitted by the piezoelectric wafer and passes through a liquid media. Unwanted reflections of the periodic signal are delayed so that the first periods of the periodic signal are representatives of the passage measurement. The first periods of the periodic signal are received at a second ultrasonic transductor having a piezoelectric wafer that receives the periodic signal. The flow rate of the fluid is determined by using the first periods of the periodic signal.

A cervical probe, outfitted with a tactile sensor array and an ultrasound transducer, is designed for simultaneous collection of stress and ultrasound strain data from the same cervical sector. The gathered stress and strain data from multiple cervical sectors are sent to a data processor, which calculates cervical elasticity as a strain-to-stress ratio. Subsequently, an average stress-to-strain ratio is compared to a predetermined cutoff value to predict preterm birth at 24-28 gestational weeks.

There are provided an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and an operation method of an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus capable of performing polarization processing during the execution period of ultrasound diagnosis without affecting the image quality of an ultrasound image. In the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and the operation method of the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus of the invention, a trigger generation circuit generates a trigger for starting polarization processing. After a trigger is given, during the execution period of ultrasound diagnosis, in a non-diagnosis period which is a period other than a period for acquiring an image of each frame and during which transmission of ultrasound waves and reception of reflected waves for performing ultrasound diagnosis are not performed, within each frame time in which an image of each frame of an ultrasound image is acquired, a control circuit performs polarization processing on a plurality of ultrasound transducers.

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.