JPH0318145B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of controlling an array type ultrasonic probe for ultrasonic scanning in which a plurality of transducer elements are arranged.

Array-type ultrasonic probes are widely used as ultrasonic transmitting and receiving elements in ultrasonic diagnostic equipment and ultrasonic flaw detection equipment.

As shown in Fig. 1, a conventional array-type ultrasonic probe has k rectangular transducer elements e1 to ek arranged in parallel on a base (not shown), and p adjacent transducer elements (three in the figure). elements are connected in common,
It is configured by forming groups 1 to 1. That is, elements e1, e2, and e3 are commonly connected to form group 1, elements e4, e5, and e6 form group 2, and three adjacent elements form one set. If this is shown as an equivalent circuit, the second
As shown in the figure, one set has p transducer elements connected in parallel, and the next set has p transducer elements next to it connected in parallel.In other words, piezoelectric vibration In order to control the vibration mode of the element, one piezoelectric body is cut and divided into p pieces to create vibrator elements, and the p pieces of vibrator elements are simply connected in parallel. For this reason,
In order to scan an ultrasound beam using such a conventional array type ultrasound probe, it is necessary to perform scanning for each set in sequence, so scanning is performed for each width of the set, and the scanning pitch is different for each set. The disadvantage is that the resolution cannot be made smaller than the pitch between the sets, and the resolution is limited to the pitch between the sets.

Also, by using one transducer element of one array-type ultrasonic probe exclusively for transmission and the other transducer element exclusively for receiving, it is possible to transmit and receive ultrasound beams at the same time with one probe having multiple elements. compared to using the receiving probe and transmitting probe separately,
The resolution and sensitivity of the obtained image will decrease. That is, in order to separate the elements into transmitting and receiving elements and use them as a separate transmitting and receiving probe, for example, sets 1, 3, etc. must be used exclusively for transmitting, and sets 2, 4, etc. must be used exclusively for receiving. However, the problem was that the ultrasonic beam traveled intermittently, further reducing the resolution.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and
An arrangement that improves image resolution by reducing the spacing between multiple strip-shaped transducer elements arranged on the same base and by reducing the scanning pitch without reducing the intensity of the ultrasound beam. The purpose of this study is to provide a control method for ultrasonic probes.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to Examples.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is its equivalent circuit diagram. In the figure, e1 to ek are rectangular vibrator elements each made of a piezoelectric material, and are formed on a base as in the conventional example.
Then, each of the vibrator elements e1 to ek is connected in parallel to the same drive source every other m pieces (three in the figure), and a plurality of sets of vibrators (the first to lth
group) is formed. That is, elements e1,
Elements e3 and e5 are commonly connected to form group 1, elements e2, e4, and e6 are commonly connected to form group 2, and so on. Also, the fifth
In the configuration diagram of another embodiment shown in the figure, one resonator element e1 in FIG. 3 is decomposed into two partial resonator elements e1', e1',
A partial resonator element e3', which is obtained by connecting e1' in common and further dividing the resonator element e3 in FIG.
The commonly connected parts of e3' are further commonly connected to form group 1, and the same applies to groups 2 and below. That is, in the example shown in Fig. 5, every other two of the transducer elements shown in Fig. 3 are commonly connected, and one transducer element is divided into two partial transducer elements, which are commonly connected. It is something. FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of another embodiment, in which three of the vibrator elements e1 to ek shown in FIG. 3 are commonly connected every two to form a set.

To explain the control method of the configuration of the present invention, first, in order to use it as a separate transmitter/receiver type probe, for example, the odd numbered sets 1, 3, etc. in Fig. 3 are used exclusively for transmission, and the even numbered sets are 2, 4, etc. are used only for reception.
Conversely, odd-numbered sets may be used exclusively for reception, and even-numbered sets may be used only for transmission. Among the plurality of sets of transducers in which every other m transducer elements are connected in parallel to a common electric circuit, adjacent sets are divided into an electric circuit dedicated to transmission and an electric circuit dedicated to reception. By alternately connecting them, a separate transmitting and receiving type can be configured without intermittent ultrasonic beams. Furthermore, since the transmitting-only electric circuit can be connected exclusively to the transmitting-only group and the receiving-only electric circuit to the receiving-only group, the sensitivity of transmitting and receiving is improved, and the separation of the transmitted and received waves is also improved. Contributes to improving short-range resolution.

In addition, a control method for an array-type ultrasonic probe in which a plurality of strip-shaped transducer elements are arranged on the same base and all of them are controlled as a transmitting-only (or receiving-only) probe is described in Section 1. This is shown in Figure 7. Here, among a plurality of sets of transducers in which every other two transducer elements are connected in parallel to the same transmission-only electric circuit (or reception-only electric circuit), adjacent l sets ( In the diagram, 3
A plurality of transducer elements as shown in FIG. The scanning pitch of the obtained image can be made smaller compared to the case of simply connecting and driving in parallel. That is, the array type ultrasonic probe has two transducer elements e1 to ek every other
In an example in which sets 1 to 8 are formed by connecting two sets in parallel, sets ₁ , 2, and 3 are connected in parallel, sets 2, 3, and 4 are set at time t 2, set 3 is set at time t 3, and sets 1, ₂ , _{and 3} are connected in parallel. 4,5, time t ₄
If the excitation drive is performed by switching in the order of 4, 5, 6, the pitch of the ultrasonic beam emitted at each time t ₁ to t ₄ will be P ₁ , P ₂ , P ₃ , etc., and the scanning pitch will be 1 transducer element. It only takes a minute. It can be seen that the scanning pitch has become much smaller than in the past, which was a set pitch. Therefore, the number of scanning lines per frame of an image can be increased, so that resolution and image quality can be improved.

In addition, in the case of a separate transmitting and receiving type, if an array type ultrasonic probe is formed in this way, it becomes possible to focus the transmitting and receiving elements at almost the same location with one acoustic lens.

As described above, according to the method for controlling an array-type ultrasonic probe of the present invention in which a plurality of rectangular transducer elements are arranged on the same base, one of the plurality of adjacent probe element groups is sequentially switching and connecting adjacent l sets with some of the sets overlapping with the transmitting-only electric circuit or the receiving-only electric circuit of the l group;
Since m/l elements are simultaneously driven and scanned, the scanning pitch can be reduced to 1/2 of that of conventional methods, and it can be used as a separate transmitter/receiver type probe, and the resolution is also doubled. It has excellent effects.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a configuration diagram of a conventional probe, and Figure 2 is a diagram of a conventional probe.
Figure 3 is an equivalent circuit diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, Figure 4 is an equivalent circuit diagram of the configuration shown in Figure 3, and Figures 5 and 6 are configurations of other embodiments of the present invention. Figure, 7th
The figure shows an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the control method of the present invention. In the figure, e1 to ek... vibrator elements, 1 to l
……set.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A plurality of rectangular transducer elements are arranged on the same base, and every other transducer element is
In a control method for an array-type ultrasonic probe in which each probe element group is individually connected to another, a plurality of adjacent probe element groups are connected to each other, and some of the adjacent sets overlap. A control method for an array-type ultrasonic probe characterized by sequentially switching and connecting to an electrical circuit exclusively for transmission or an electrical circuit exclusively for receiving, and simultaneously driving and scanning m·l elements.