JP2000214144A - Two-dimensional array ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate wiring without deteriorating acoustic characteristics. SOLUTION: In an ultrasonic probe having vibrators 1 arranged in a two-dimensional matrix state, an electric circuit connected to the respective elements of the vibrators to transmit and receive a signal is constituted of signal wires 22a, 22b, 22c arranged on a base film 21 unidimensionally at the interval corresponding to the elements of the vibrators and the base film parts of the connection terminals of the signal wires to the vibrator elements are held in a sandwiched state by an acoustic sound absorbing material 3 to be bonded to constitute a two-dimensional array ultrasonic probe.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe, and more particularly to an ultrasonic probe in which transducer elements are arranged in a two-dimensional matrix (in a grid pattern). The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe that facilitates selection of an array pattern, has low manufacturing costs, and has good detection signal characteristics.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional ultrasonic probes having a two-dimensional matrix arrangement include the following. 1) An ultrasonic probe for transmitting an ultrasonic wave to a subject and receiving a reflected wave from the subject is arranged in a two-dimensional matrix, and a signal line is wired to each of the arranged vibrating elements. A flexible pattern circuit (FPC) is prepared, one end of each signal line in the FPC is connected to the back electrode of the corresponding vibrator, and the other end of each signal line is connected to a cable or the like to transmit and receive signals. Configuration thing.

2) Needle-like signal lines are two-dimensionally arranged in an acoustic sound absorbing material corresponding to the two-dimensional matrix ultrasonic vibrating element, and electrodes of a vibrator corresponding to the tip of each signal line. , The corresponding transducer electrode is connected to the end of each signal line, and an FPC or cable is connected to the other end to extract a signal.

[0004]

In the prior art 1), there is a problem that the FPC layer below the vibrator deteriorates the acoustic characteristics. Further, in a probe having a large number of transducers, there is a problem that it is difficult to route the wires because the number of wires to be connected is large. Although there is a method of avoiding a large amount of routing with a laminated pattern structure, there is a problem that the acoustic characteristics are deteriorated. Also, in 2) of the prior art, there is a problem that it is difficult to reduce the size because a thick line is used so as not to bend when the signal line is pierced into the acoustic sound absorbing material.

[0005] It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to facilitate wiring without deteriorating acoustic characteristics.

[0006]

The invention of the present application to achieve the above object is as follows. (1) In an ultrasonic probe having transducer elements arranged in a two-dimensional matrix, an electric circuit connected to the transducer element for transmitting and receiving signals corresponds to the transducer element in a base film shape. It is characterized by being constituted by signal lines arranged one-dimensionally with an interval, and an acoustic sound absorbing material is bonded and arranged in a sandwich shape on a base film portion of a connection end of the signal line to the vibrator element. Two-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe. (2) In the ultrasonic probe according to the above (1), a part of signal lines arranged one-dimensionally on a base film is thinned out to form a two-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe. Sonic probe.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes an ultrasonic vibrator element 1 arranged in a two-dimensional matrix (a grid pattern).
The transducer is composed of a single element, and can transmit and receive ultrasonic signals from individual elements to obtain three-dimensional information.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 2 denotes an FPC in which signal lines 22a, 22b and 22c are attached in parallel to a base film (or simply a film) 21 made of a material such as polyimide at equal intervals. Here, the thickness of the base film 21 is about 12.5 μm, and the signal lines 22a, 22b, 2
The thickness of 2c is about 10 μm.

FIG. 4 shows the sound absorbing materials 3a, 3b, 3c, 3
This shows a situation in which the FPCs 2a, 2b, and 2c are sandwiched between them, and they are bonded to each other with an adhesive. If the surface connecting the bonded FPC and the vibrator of the acoustic sound absorbing material is uneven due to misalignment during bonding, the surface is flattened by polishing to destroy the vibrator when connecting the vibrator. Etc. are reduced. The vibrator is connected to the exposed signal lines by soldering or a conductive adhesive. At this time, if a metal pad is formed on the exposed signal line, the reliability of the connection is improved.

FIG. 5 is a top view of the FPC and the acoustic sound absorbing material adhered in the manner of FIG. 4, and shows signal lines 22a and 22a.
The arrangement of the connection portions b and 22c has the same pitch as the arrangement pattern of the transducers. In addition, since the acoustic sound absorbing materials 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d provided alternately with the FPC are provided over the entire lower surface of the vibrator, a living body (subject) is provided.
Ultrasonic waves radiated in the opposite direction can be attenuated, and at the same time, have the effect of stopping the vibration of the vibrator, thereby reducing the tailing of the ultrasonic beam (signal) waveform. A sound beam can be emitted.

The vibration element of the two-dimensional array type probe is 16 × 1
Since there are 256 channels in the case of 6 channels and 1024 channels in the case of 32 × 32 channels, which is an enormous number of channels, the channels are thinned out. In the present invention, the thinning is performed by combining FPCs having different signal line arrangement patterns. This will be described below.

FIG. 6 shows an FPC in which signal lines are thinned out.
FIG. 6A shows an FPC (2d) obtained by thinning out the central signal line 22b in the FPC shown in FIG.
2B shows an FPC (2e) in which the signal lines 22a and 22c on both the left and right sides in the FPC shown in FIG. 2 are thinned out and only the center 22b is left.

FIG. 7 shows the sound absorbing materials 3a, 3b, 2d, 2d, and 2e, which are the thinned FPCs shown in FIG.
A method for producing a combined body of an FPC having a thinned signal line pattern and an acoustic sound absorbing material by being sandwiched and bonded between 3c and 3d will be described. The working process in this case is the same as that in the case where there is no signal line thinning shown in FIG. 4, and since there is no change in the working process due to the change in the arrangement pattern of the vibrator elements, various element configurations can be easily manufactured. . By combining patterns obtained by thinning out signal lines of the FPC, for example, a two-dimensional array vibrator pattern in a Fresnel ring shape can be formed.

FIG. 8 shows the acoustic sound absorbing material and the FPC shown in FIG.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a connection surface with a transducer electrode after bonding the elements. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a two-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe manufactured through the manufacturing process according to the present invention described above.
In order to converge the ultrasonic beam, the acoustic lens 5
If the top surface is rounded and used without convergence, use a flat top surface as shown in the figure. There may be no acoustic lens. The acoustic matching layer 4 has a function of efficiently transmitting ultrasonic waves from the transducer to a living body (subject).
The ground lines 8 are connected to the ground electrodes of the individual transducers, which are connected to the ground lines of the cable.

FIG. 9 shows a connection example between the FPC 2 and the cable 7. In this case, the signal line 22 at the end of the FPC is exposed, and a connector 6 that just meshes with the signal line 22 is provided at the end of the cable 7 and the connector is engaged with the cable. Alternatively, a means for providing a connector to which a signal line is connected at the end of the FPC and connecting to a connector of a cable connected to the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus main body may be used.

[0016]

According to the present invention, the wiring of the signal line pattern of the two-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe can be facilitated, the cost can be reduced, and good detection characteristics can be obtained.
Further, in the two-dimensional array type probe, since the number of transducer elements is enormous, the elements are thinned out.
It is possible to thin out the elements by combining the signal line patterns of C, and the operation can be performed without changing the manufacturing process.
Realization is easy and man-hours can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing transducers arranged in a two-dimensional matrix.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view and a cross-sectional view of an FPC.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of sandwiching and bonding an FPC between acoustic sound absorbing materials.

FIG. 5 is a top view after the bonding operation of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an FPC in which signal lines are thinned out.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of bonding a thinned signal line FPC by sandwiching the thinned signal line FPC between acoustic sound absorbing materials.

FIG. 8 is a top view of the adhesive after the operation of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a connection method between an FPC and a cable.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 vibrator 2, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e flexible
Pattern circuit 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d Acoustic sound absorbing material 4 Acoustic matching layer 5 Acoustic lens 6 Connector 7, 7a, 7b, 7c Cable 11 Transducer element 21 Base film 22, 22a, 22b, 22c Signal line

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] June 7, 1999 (1999.6.7)

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Name of invention

[Correction method] Added

[Correction contents]

[Title of the Invention] Two-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masasaku Ishihara 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the Manufacturing Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Masato Nakamura 292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Hitachi, Ltd. Production Technology Laboratory (72) Inventor Mikio Izumi 1-1-1 Uchikanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo F-term (reference) 2G047 EA16 GB02 GB16 GB21 GB22 GB30 4C301 EE17 EE16 EE17 GB09 GB19 GB20 GB22 GB27 5D019 AA26 BB19 FF04 GG12 HH03

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic probe having transducer elements arranged in a two-dimensional matrix, comprising: an electric circuit connected to the transducer element for transmitting / receiving a signal; In addition to being constituted by one-dimensionally arranged signal lines with corresponding intervals, an acoustic sound absorbing material is bonded and arranged in a sandwich shape on a base film portion of a connection end of the signal line to the transducer element. Two-dimensional array type ultrasonic probe.