An ultrasonic device includes an ultrasonic sensor, a wiring member, and a housing, in which the wiring member has a covered wire that covers a signal line coupled to the ultrasonic sensor via an insulating layer, and a conductive member that is electrically coupled with the covered wire, the housing has a plurality of housing components having conductivity, and covers the ultrasonic sensor with the plurality of housing components, and the conductive member is electrically coupled to and held by the plurality of housing components.

Aspects of the technology described herein relate to built-in self-testing (BIST) of circuitry (e.g., a pulser or receive circuitry) and/or transducers in an ultrasound device. A BIST circuit may include a transconductance amplifier coupled between a pulser and receive circuitry, a capacitor network coupled between a pulser and receive circuitry, and/or a current source couplable to the input terminal of receive circuitry to which a transducer is also couplable. The collapse voltages of transducers may be characterized using BIST circuitry, and a bias voltage may be applied to the membranes of the transducers based at least in part on their collapse voltages. The capacitances of transducers may also be measured using BIST circuitry and a notification may be generated based on the sets of measurements.

The present invention relates to a system for the controlled fragmentation of solids by means of acoustic beams, comprising at least one acoustic beam generation unit (100); and one feedback and control unit (200) of said generation unit (100). Advantageously, the acoustic beams generated by the system are acoustic vortex beams; and the feedback and control unit (200) further comprises a feedback subsystem (12), configured to receive the information relating to the fragmented solids and to utilize it so as to adapt the operation of the acoustic beam generation unit (100). Given that the generation of shearing stresses is more efficient using vortex beams, the amplitudes of the ultrasonic field needed to fragment the calculi are much lower than in current extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy techniques. Likewise, the system minimizes unwanted effects on soft tissues surrounding the solid.

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.

Methods and apparatuses provide a phacoemulsification probe, wherein the probe has a piezoelectric actuator coupled with a needle configured to be inserted into an eye of a patient; and a processor configured to sequentially drive the actuator electrically in a range of frequencies, to measure a respective electrical power input to the actuator at each of the frequencies in the range, to identify a frequency in the range of frequencies wherein a metric of the electrical power input is a maximum, and to estimate from the identified frequency a mechanical resonant frequency of the actuator, and to drive the actuator electrically at the mechanical resonant frequency.

An acoustic-wave generating device includes a drive circuit and a power auxiliary circuit. The drive circuit includes a capacitor chargeable via a direct-current power supply, and a drive switch to cause power to be supplied from the capacitor to an acoustic-wave source which produces heat through energization to generate acoustic waves. The power auxiliary circuit is operable to supplies power to the drive circuit to avoid a decrease of power supplied to the acoustic-wave source in an operation of generating a series of acoustic waves from the acoustic-wave source through switching of the drive switch.

The present disclosure provides a device for ultrasonic sensing, which includes a driver circuit configured to generate an ultrasonic signal, a piezoelectric element having a first electrode and a second electrode, a blocking transistor configured to connect the piezoelectric element with the second electrode to a fixed bias voltage, and a source rectifier including a gate, a drain, and a source electrically connected to the piezoelectric element and the blocking transistor. The piezoelectric element is coupled with the driver circuit with the first electrode. The blocking transistor includes a gate for receiving a blocking control signal, a drain electrically connected to the second electrode of the piezoelectric element, and a source electrically connected to the fixed bias voltage, wherein, in response to the blocking signal, the blocking transistor is configured to be turned on within a transmission period and to be turned off within a receiving period.

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.

An ultrasonic device includes a driving circuit to provide drive power, a first transducer array to generate ultrasonic waves, the first transducer array being connected to receive power from the driving circuit, and a second transducer array to detect reflected or elicited ultrasonic waves incident on the device from a target and generate a signal based on those waves, the second transducer array being acoustically transmissive and disposed over the first transducer array such that the generated ultrasonic waves pass through the second transducer array. The second array is tuned to operate on top of the first. The functions of the two arrays may be reversed and the array tuned to operate with the first array receiving and the second array transmitting.

A focused extracorporeal shock wave therapy (f-ESWT) device includes a handheld housing, a battery, and a transducer assembly. The battery is located in the handheld housing. The transducer assembly is located in the handheld housing and is operably connected to the battery. The transducer assembly is configured to generate a focused shock wave using electrical energy from the battery.