An ultrasonic probe according to one embodiment comprises: a plurality of sound absorbing bodies that form a sound absorbing layer; at least one ground connection part that is joined between the sound absorbing bodies; at least one center connection part that is joined between the sound absorbing bodies and has an electrode; a plurality of side connection parts that are joined between the sound absorbing bodies and disposed outside the center connection part and have an electrode; and a plurality of piezoelectric bodies that are disposed in front of the sound absorbing layer to be electrically connected to the ground connection part, the center connection part, and the side connection parts.

A drive control device is provided that drives an ultrasonic motor element including a piezoelectric element. The drive control device includes a voltage divider circuit unit resistor forming a voltage divider circuit unit together with an identification resistor that identifies the ultrasonic motor element; a control circuit unit connected to the voltage divider circuit unit and that sets a drive condition of the ultrasonic motor element according to a voltage of an identification signal for identifying the ultrasonic motor element; and a drive circuit unit that applies a drive voltage to the piezoelectric element based on the drive condition set by the control circuit unit.

An ultrasonic imaging system has a bias-switchable, ultrasonic transducer array and a bipolar voltage source. The array has a dielectric layer having a top surface and a bottom surface; top and bottom electrode strips in electrical contact with the top and bottom surface of the dielectric layer, the bottom electrode strips being oriented at a non-zero angle relative to the top electrode strips. There is an acoustic matching layer or multiplicity of matching layers on the front-side of the array and a leakage-current mitigation layer. The bipolar voltage source is connected to each of the top and bottom electrode strips to induce a polarization in the dielectric layer, the bipolar voltage source being capable of switching between a high voltage state and a low voltage state. A controller controls the bipolar voltage source, and pulsing to and receiving signals from the top and bottom electrode strips.

A handheld focused extracorporeal shock wave therapy (f-ESWT) device includes a plurality of piezoelectric elements, a power supply circuit, and a plurality of driver circuits. The piezoelectric elements are each configured to generate an individual shock wave. The power supply circuit is configured to output a first DC voltage and a second DC voltage. The first DC voltage greater than the second DC voltage. The driver circuits are each operably connected to the first DC voltage, the second DC voltage, and to a corresponding piezoelectric element of the plurality of piezoelectric elements. Each driver circuit includes a switching element electronically configurable in an open state and in a closed state. When the switching element is in the open state, the first DC voltage and the second DC voltage are applied to the corresponding piezoelectric element to pre-charge the corresponding piezoelectric element with a DC pre-charge voltage having a first polarity.

A control circuit of an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus having an ultrasound endoscope controls a transmission circuit to generate a transmission signal, which includes a diagnostic driving pulse applied to each of a plurality of ultrasound transducers that generate ultrasound waves for acquiring an ultrasound image, in the case of acquiring the ultrasound image, and controls the transmission circuit to generate a polarization driving pulse, which has a polarization driving voltage different from voltage of the diagnostic driving pulse within the same settable voltage range as the diagnostic driving pulse and has a frequency different from a probe frequency band for acquiring the ultrasound image, in order to perform the polarization processing of the plurality of ultrasound transducers in the case of performing the polarization processing.

The present invention relates to an ultrasound treatment device for HIFU and an ultrasound image, and to a control method therefor. The ultrasound treatment device comprises: a plurality of image converters disposed on one surface of a probe assembly to transmit ultrasound signals to a target and receive signals reflected by the target to create an ultrasound image; a plurality of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) converters disposed on the surface of the probe assembly so as to be located in different positions from the image converters, wherein the HIFU converters transmit ultrasound signals to a target to generate heat energy, thereby treating a tissue within a focusing area; and a control unit performing control such that the difference between apertures of converter arrays constituted by the image converters and the HIFU converters, respectively, is less than a predetermined value.

An ultrasonic transducer is described, including a piezoelectric element, a fluid medium contact layer, a matching layer between the piezoelectric element and the fluid medium contact layer, and a backing layer. Ultrasound sensor devices utilising the ultrasonic transducer are also described, for use in systems for analysing a fluid such as milk.

A method for locating a plurality of elements comprising a flexible ultrasound phased array. The method includes constructing a matrix of traveltimes by iteratively transmitting a signal from one element of the plurality and receiving the signal at each of the other elements of the plurality. Traveltimes are derived from each received signal and arrayed in a matrix. Relative positions of the first element of the plurality and the last element of the plurality are established and the locations of the remaining elements of the plurality are iteratively modeled to fit the matrix of traveltimes.

The present disclosure relates to an ultrasound elastography system and method. The system may include a transmitting/receiving unit which transmits ultrasound pulses to a target and receives ultrasound echoes from the target to obtain the ultrasound echo signals; an imaging unit which processes the ultrasound echo signals and displays the obtained image; and an analysis unit which detects a region of interest and a shell region selected by an operator in the image, calculate elasticity parameters in a reference region and the shell region respectively, and analyzes the elasticity parameters to obtain an analysis result.

An acoustic imaging probe having an adjustable effective elevation length. The acoustic 5imaging probe has a transducer element, comprising a plurality of acoustic transducers, that is divided into a plurality of sets of adjacent transducers. A processing module controls how many sets contribute to an acoustic pulse emitted by the acoustic transducer element during an imaging process, to thereby adjust an effective elevation length of the acoustic imaging probe.