JPH0592003A - Ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the size and diameter of the ultrasonic probe by dispensing with a member for connecting a housing and a coil shaft or many signal cables as the housing and the coil shaft and are integrated. CONSTITUTION:The front end of the coils shaft 13 is subjected to a hardening treatment and is partly notched to form the housing 14. An ultrasonic vibrator transducer unit or miniaturized multiplexer is provided in this housing 14. Then, the axis mis-alignment of the housing 14 and the coil shaft 13 is prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe used in a body cavity ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An intracorporeal ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for inserting an insertion portion into a body cavity and performing ultrasonic scanning with an ultrasonic probe provided in the insertion portion is widely used today. This is to perform ultrasonic diagnosis by irradiating an object with an ultrasonic beam, performing signal processing on a reflected wave, and displaying an ultrasonic image on a monitor of an ultrasonic observation apparatus. There are various ultrasonic scanning methods in this ultrasonic diagnosis, and one of them is a radial scanning method. The radial scanning method further includes two methods of mechanical radial scanning and electronic radial scanning.

In the mechanical radial scanning among the above, a single ultrasonic transducer is rotated in the outer peripheral direction of the insertion portion within the tip of the insertion portion to irradiate an ultrasonic beam in the vertical direction about the rotation axis. , To obtain an ultrasonic image. Figure 14
Shows only the rotating body inside the insertion portion, the ultrasonic transducer 30 is provided in the housing 31, and the housing 31 is connected to the coil shaft 32 so as to rotate integrally. The coil shaft 32 extends to a drive unit (not shown), and transmits the rotational force to the housing 31 while rotating by the rotational force of a motor provided in the drive unit.

On the other hand, in electronic radial scanning, an ultrasonic image is obtained in the same direction as mechanical radial scanning by electrically scanning using a plurality of ultrasonic transducers arranged side by side in the outer peripheral direction of the insertion portion. Is. FIG. 15 shows ultrasonic transducers and the like in the insertion portion, but the ultrasonic transducers 33
Are arranged side by side in a cylindrical shape,
34, a signal cable 35 disposed inside the coil shaft 32 is connected to each ultrasonic transducer 33.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned mechanical radial scanning type ultrasonic probe uses a variety of members for fixing the housing having the ultrasonic transducer to the coil shaft so that the vicinity of the fixed portion can be improved. Space
Since the space is wide, the inner diameter of the coil shaft becomes large, and accordingly, the outer diameter of the coil shaft also becomes large. Further, when the housing is connected to the coil shaft, there is a possibility that an axis shift may occur, and if this axis shift occurs, the ultrasonic transducer at the tip may not rotate properly.

On the other hand, in the electronic radial scanning type ultrasonic probe, a plurality of ultrasonic transducers are arranged in a substantially cylindrical surface side by side and driven through a signal cable to electronically perform ultrasonic scanning. Therefore, the signal cable of each ultrasonic transducer must pass through the multiplexer substrate. Although there is a demand for downsizing and downsizing of the tip of the insertion section, there are two methods of using a monolithic IC and a hybrid IC for downsizing the multiplexer substrate provided at the tip of the insertion section. When a monolithic IC is used, the withstand voltage is as low as about 40 V, so there is a problem in that it cannot withstand the voltage applied to the ultrasonic transducer.

On the other hand, the hybrid IC has an advantage that it can be used with a discrete component having a high withstand voltage, but it cannot be sized so that it can be housed in the tip of the ultrasonic probe with a single substrate. Therefore, several tens of signal cables are actually passed through the coil shaft, but this increases the inner diameter of the coil shaft and the outer diameter of the coil shaft. In addition, there is a problem that the connection points between the individual ultrasonic transducers and the signal cable become thicker, and the outer diameter of the connection points between the coil shaft and the ultrasonic transducer array also increases accordingly. The present invention is proposed to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a small-sized and small-diameter ultrasonic probe.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an ultrasonic transducer and a housing to which the ultrasonic transducer is fixed, in the tip of the insertion portion, and the housing penetrates the insertion portion. In the ultrasonic probe formed by being connected to the flexible coil shaft, the distal end portion of the coil shaft is hardened, and a part of the ultrasonic wave is cut away to form a housing.

[0009]

By forming a part of the coil shaft as the housing in this manner, the tip of the insertion portion can be made smaller and the diameter thereof can be reduced, and the axial displacement of both can be prevented.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 5 show a first embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment relates to a mechanical radial scanning type ultrasonic probe, and the whole is shown in FIG. This ultrasonic probe has a drive unit 1 and an insertion unit 2, and the drive unit 1 is provided with a rotation drive motor and a rotation detector. Further, the insertion part 2 is detachable from the drive part 1 and can be cleaned by a cleaning device after the ultrasonic inspection is completed.

Here, a method of cleaning the insertion portion 2 will be described. First, the insertion portion 2 is wound up using the drum 3 as shown in FIG. To wind up, upper disc 4 of drum 3
The connection portion 6 of the insertion portion 2 is fitted into the notch 5 formed in the drum 3, and the drum 3 is inserted through the grip 7 provided on the upper disc 4.
Is rotated and wound up as shown in FIG. The tip of the insertion portion 2 is pressed by a stopper 9 provided on the lower disk 8 of the drum 3.

Next, the drum 3 having the insertion portion 2 wound therein is put into the cleaning container 10. Needless to say, the cleaning container 10 has an inner diameter and a height slightly larger than that of the drum 3, and the inside thereof is filled with the cleaning liquid 11. Therefore,
When cleaning, the drum 7 is rotated in the circumferential direction via the grip 7 of the drum 3. The above is the cleaning method for the insertion portion 2.

Next, the structure of the tip of the insertion portion 2 will be described with reference to FIG. 5. The coil shaft 13 is provided inside the sheath 12 made of Teflon or the like, and the rotational force from the drive portion is transmitted to the tip. It is like this. The tip of the coil shaft 13 is first hardened, and an opening 15 is formed by cutting out a part of the hardened portion. Thus, the housing 14 is formed. As a concrete method of the curing treatment, an adhesive, solder or the like is used. This opening
Inside the housing 14 where 15 is formed, an ultrasonic transducer,
An oscillator unit 16 having an electrode, an acoustic matching layer, an acoustic lens, and an acoustic absorbent is provided, and a coaxial cable 17 extending inside the coil shaft 13 is connected to the electrode by soldering.

In this embodiment, as described above, since the housing 14 is integrally formed by processing the tip of the coil shaft 13, the outer diameter of the tip of the insertion portion does not increase, and the housing 14 and the coil shaft are not increased. Inconvenience such as misalignment with 13 is eliminated. Further, since the clearance between the sheath 12 and the coil shaft 13 is substantially constant over the entire length of the insertion portion, even if the vibrator unit 16 is rotated through the coil shaft 13, uneven rotation of the vibrator unit 16 does not occur. Further housing and coil shaft 13
Since there is no connecting step with, the production cost can be reduced.

6 to 8 show a second embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is a modification of the first embodiment and is shown in FIG.
Is a perspective view showing the configuration of the tip of the insertion portion, FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 6, a sectional view taken along line BB, and FIG. 8 is a side sectional view in FIG. Parts corresponding to those of the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals (the same applies to the following embodiments).

Also in this embodiment, first, the tip of the coil shaft 13 is hardened by brazing to form a brazed portion. By opening a part of this brazing part, the opening 15
Is formed to form the housing 14. In this case, the opening 15 is formed so that the width W of the vibrator mounting portion 14a, which is a part of the housing 14, is approximately the same as the bottom width of the vibrator unit 16.
To form. When the transducer unit 16 is mounted and fixed on the housing 14 thus formed, the peripheral side of the transducer unit 16 is exposed to the transducer mounting portion 14a as shown in FIG.

The coil shaft 13 having the housing 14 as described above is rotatably provided inside the sheath made of Teflon or the like as in the first embodiment, and is rotated by the rotational force from the driving unit during ultrasonic scanning. It is like this.
With this configuration, various members for fixing the housing 14 to the coil shaft 13 are not required, and the outer diameter of the coil shaft 13 is not increased. When the coil shaft 13 is made thinner in this way,
Although the insertion portion of the probe can be made thinner, there is a limit to the diameter reduction of the coil shaft 13.

That is, since the coil shaft 13 is rotated by the rotational force from the drive unit, it is necessary to ensure the rotation followability. For this purpose, the diameter of the wire of the cord 13a forming the coil shaft 13 cannot be made too small (FIG. 8). Therefore, if the inner diameter of the coil shaft 13 is secured to some extent, the outer diameter inevitably becomes large. However, in the first embodiment, the transducer unit 16 is arranged by forming the inner diameter larger than the outer diameter of the coaxial cable 17 extending inside the coil shaft 13, while in the present embodiment, the coaxial unit is arranged. The coil shaft 13 may have an outer diameter corresponding to the outer diameter of the cable 17 and the wall thickness of the coil shaft 13, and the coil shaft 13 may have a diameter smaller than that of the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of FIG. 6 respectively. As shown in FIG. 6B, when the outer diameter is φD with respect to the inner diameter φC of the coil shaft 13, the inner diameter curved as in the first embodiment. If the vibrator unit 16 is to be arranged in the portion (FIG. 5), only the vibrator unit 16 smaller than the inner diameter φC can be arranged. However, since the housing 14 of this embodiment is formed so that only the bottom of the vibrator unit 16 is mounted on the vibrator mounting portion 14a, as shown in FIG. 7A, a width wider than the inner diameter φC of the coil shaft 13 is provided. The vibrator unit 16 of E can be mounted. The width W of the vibrator mounting portion 14a and the width E of the vibrator unit 16 are substantially the same.

Since the present embodiment is constructed as described above, a large vibrator unit can be arranged even though the coil shaft has a smaller diameter than the coil shaft of the first embodiment. The sensitivity in the case of scanning can be improved.

9 to 13 show a third embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is of the electronic radial scanning type, and FIG. 9 shows a hybrid that can be incorporated in the tip of the insertion section.
It shows one of a plurality of circuit boards forming an IC. The circuit board 18 is formed in a substantially annular shape, and lands 19 are attached to the edge of the circuit board 18 at substantially equal intervals in the outer peripheral direction. Further, a lead 20 is intermittently attached on the land 19. This can be easily formed by application of conventional lead frames. FIG. 10 shows a cross section of the circuit board 18 thus formed.

As shown in the sectional view of FIG. 11, the above-mentioned circuit boards 18 are arranged in parallel by connecting them via leads 20. FIG. 12 is a perspective view of the thus-formed multiplexer substrate, which can be arranged in the vicinity of the ultrasonic transducer array by using a minimum space by assembling it into a substantially columnar shape. FIG. 13 shows a multiplexer 21, an ultrasonic transducer array
It shows a state in which 22 and the like are provided at the tip of the insertion portion. A coil shaft 13 is provided inside the outer cover 23, and a housing 14 processed in the same manner as in the above embodiment is provided at the tip of the coil shaft 13. The multiplexer 21 is fitted and fixed to the opening 15 of the housing 14. At the tip of this multiplexer 21, an ultrasonic transducer array 22
Are connected so as to be exposed from the outer casing 23.

The multiplexer 21 is entirely covered with resin, and is fixedly adhered to the outer casing 23. A Teflon tube 24 is passed through the entire insertion portion having such an insertion portion distal end portion at the axial center position thereof, and a guide wire or the like can be inserted therein.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the housing is formed by processing the tip of the coil shaft 13 as in the above-mentioned embodiment, the outer diameter of the tip of the insertion portion does not increase. Although the present embodiment is of the electronic radial scanning type, since the multiplexer 21 is compactly formed into a substantially cylindrical shape, it can be provided in the substantially pipe-shaped housing 14. In addition, the use of the multiplexer 21 reduces the number of signal cables and reduces the risk of disconnection due to bending of the insertion portion.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, the housing is formed by processing the tip of the coil shaft, and the ultrasonic transducer unit or the miniaturized multiplexer is provided. A member for connecting to the shaft or a large number of signal cables is not required, and the tip of the insertion portion can be downsized and the diameter can be reduced. Further, in the mechanical radial scanning type ultrasonic probe, it is possible to prevent uneven rotation due to the axial deviation between the tip portion and the coil shaft. There is no problem even in the electronic radial scanning type ultrasonic probe because it can be easily housed in the housing having the shape as in the present invention by using the downsized multiplexer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic diagram of an ultrasonic probe according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an insertion portion winding drum.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a state where an insertion portion is wound up.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which the insertion portion is being cleaned.

FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing the tip of the insertion portion.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the tip of the ultrasonic probe insertion portion according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

7 is a sectional view taken along the line AA and a sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG.

8 is a side sectional view of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a front view of a substrate used in an ultrasonic probe according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of a substrate.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a state in which a plurality of substrates are connected.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view showing a state where a plurality of substrates are connected.

FIG. 13 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the tip of the insertion portion.

FIG. 14 is a side view of only the rotating body at the tip of the insertion section according to the conventional example (mechanical radial scanning type).

FIG. 15 is a side view of only the inside of the tip of the insertion section according to the conventional example (electronic radial scanning type).

[Explanation of symbols]

 12 series 13 coil shaft 14 housing 15 opening 16 ultrasonic transducer 17 coaxial cable

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Kuniaki Kami, Inventor Kuniaki Kamigaya 2-43-2, Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. No. 2 Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hironobu Aoki 2-chome Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 43-2 Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Akihiro Hoshino 2-chome Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 43-2 Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yoshiro Nishimura 2-chome Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 43-2 Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Fuka Yoshizawa 2-chome Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 43-2 Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takenao Fujimura 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Olin Scan Optical Industry Co., Ltd. in the (72) inventor Sawada Noriyuki Yoshihiko Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Hatagaya chome No. 43 No. 2 Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. in

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ultrasonic probe comprising an ultrasonic transducer and a housing to which the ultrasonic transducer is fixed, provided in the tip of the insertion portion, the housing being connected to a flexible coil shaft penetrating the insertion portion. In the ultrasonic probe, the tip portion of the coil shaft is hardened and the housing is formed by cutting out a part of the coil shaft.