ULTRASOUND SCANNING CAPSULE ENDOSCOPE

• US 20140323867A1
• Filed: 01/03/2014
• Published: 10/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Innurvation Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Innurvation Incorporated
• Inventors: ARNESON, Michael, Bandy, William, Shanks, Wayne
• Granted Patent: US 9,480,459 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/447
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/12 in body cavities or body tracts, e.g. by using catheters catheters per se A61M25/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4472 Wireless probes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4488 the transducer being a phased array
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8915 using a transducer array
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8993 Three dimensional imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52017 particularly adapted to short-range imaging G01S7/53 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52065 Compound scan display, e.g. panoramic imaging

Abstract

The present invention relates to ultrasound imaging on a capsule endoscope platform. It relates to the generation of a focused ultrasound acoustic signal and the receiving of echo signals from the wall of a body lumen with an array of acoustic transducers wrapped around the circumference of the capsule. It relates to sending the generated echo image signals to receiver devices attached or worn on the body. It relates to the generation of 360° overlapping sidewall ultrasound scans of a body lumen, and image processing techniques to assemble these scans into a high resolution continuous ultrasound image. Finally, it relates to the manufacture and assembly of such an ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope (USCE). The concept is extendable to conventional endoscopes and catheters.

Claims

1. An ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope, comprising:

a housing having a size that is ingestible; and

an ultrasonic transducer array, wrapped around a circumference of the housing, configured to transmit a plurality of ultrasonic signals and to receive a plurality of echo signals,

wherein wavelengths of the plurality of ultrasonic signals are configured to be a multiple of a center-to-center transducer element spacing between adjacent transducers in the ultrasonic transducer array.

2. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic transducer array is configured to utilize a first number of transducers when configured to transmit the plurality of ultrasonic signals that is greater than a second number of transducers when configured to receive the plurality of echo signals.

3. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 1, wherein the wavelengths are integer multiples of the center-to-center transducer element spacing.

4. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic transducer array is configured to enter into a receive mode of operation to receive the plurality of echo signals after transmitting the plurality of ultrasonic signals in a transmit mode of operation.

5. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 1, wherein a first group of transducers in the ultrasonic transducer array that is further away from a center of their respective consecutive phased array provide their respective ultrasonic signals from among plurality of ultrasonic signals before a second group of transducers in the ultrasonic transducer array that are closer to the center.

6. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 1, wherein the ultrasonic transducer array is configured and arranged to form a plurality of quadrants around the circumference, each of the plurality of quadrants being configured to simultaneously image one or more voxels at a time around the circumference.

7. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of quadrants is further configured to sequentially image the one or more voxels until all circumference voxels have been imaged.

8. An ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope, comprising:

an ultrasonic transducer phased array wrapped around a circumference of a housing, each transducer in the ultrasonic transducer phased array being configured to transmit an ultrasonic signal and to receive an echo signal;

wherein a wavelength of the ultrasonic signal transmitted by each transducer in the ultrasonic transducer array is a multiple of a center-to-center transducer element spacing between adjacent transducers in the ultrasonic transducer array.

9. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 8, wherein each phased array within the ultrasonic transducer phased array utilizes a number of transducers when configured to transmit its respective ultrasonic signal that is greater than a number of transducers when configured to receive its respective echo signal.

10. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 9, wherein the wavelength is an integer multiple of the center-to-center transducer element spacing.

11. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 8, wherein each transducer in the ultrasonic transducer phased array is configured to enter into a receive mode of operation to listen for its respective echo signal after transmitting its respective ultrasonic signal in a transmit mode of operation.

12. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 8, wherein transducers in the ultrasonic transducer phased array that are further away from a center of their respective phased array provide their respective ultrasonic signals before transducers in the ultrasonic transducer phased array that are closer to the center.

13. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 8, wherein the ultrasonic transducer phased array is configured and arranged to form a plurality of quadrants around the circumference, each of the plurality of quadrants being configured to simultaneously image one or more voxels at a time around the circumference.

14. The ultrasound scanning capsule endoscope of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of quadrants is further configured to sequentially image the one or more voxels until all circumference voxels have been imaged.