Method for forming a matching layer structure of an acoustic stack

• US 7,905,007 B2
• Filed: 03/18/2009
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Lanteri, Frederic, Smith, Lowell, Calisti, Serge Gerard, Baumgartner, Charles, Gelly, Jean-Francois
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim; Paul D
• Application Number:
  US12/406,731
• Publication Number:
  US 20100237746A1
• Time in Patent Office: 727 Days
• Field of Search: 29/253.5, 295/921, 295/94, 296/091, 310/310, 310/313.R, 310/334
• US Class Current: 29/594
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4455 Features of the external shape of the probe, e.g. ergonomic aspects
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/483 involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• CPC Class Codes: B06B 1/0618 of piezo- and non-piezoelectric elements, e.g. 'Tonpilz'
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/42 Piezoelectric device making
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49002 Electrical device making
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49005 Acoustic transducer
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/4908 Acoustic transducer

Abstract

An acoustical stack for an ultrasound probe comprises a piezoelectric layer having top and bottom sides and a plurality of matching layer sections forming a matching layer structure. Each of the matching layer sections comprises a spring layer comprising a first material and a mass layer comprising a second material that is different than the first material. The spring layer within the matching layer section that is positioned closest to the piezoelectric layer is thinner than the spring layer within the other matching layer sections.

Claims

1. A method for forming a impedance matching layer structure of an acoustical stack for an ultrasound probe, the method comprising:

forming a first impedance matching layer section, for an ultrasound probe, comprising a spring layer at a bottom side of the first matching layer section and a mass layer at a top side of the first matching layer section, the bottom side of the first matching layer section configured to be attached to one of a piezoelectric layer or a quarter-wavelength matching layer, the spring layer comprising a spring material and the mass layer comprising a mass material that has higher impedance than the spring material; and

forming at least one additional impedance matching layer section, for an ultrasound probe, comprising a spring layer at a bottom side of the additional matching layer section and a mass layer at a top side of the additional matching layer section, the bottom side of the additional matching layer section configured to be attached to the top side of the first matching layer section, the spring layer comprising the spring material and the mass layer comprising the mass material.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first matching layer section comprises a greater percentage of the mass material and a lesser percentage of the spring material than the additional matching layer section.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a number of the additional matching layer sections is based on a bandwidth of the probe.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining acoustic impedances of the first matching layer section and the additional matching layer section; and

determining thicknesses of the mass layers based on the acoustic impedance of at least one of the first matching layer section or the additional matching layer section, and at least one material property of the mass material or a material property of the spring material of the first matching layer section or the additional matching layer section.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining acoustic impedances of the first matching layer section and the additional matching layer section; and

determining thicknesses of the spring layers based on the acoustic impedances and at least one material property of the spring material of the first matching layer section or the additional matching layer section.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the spring material has an associated acoustic impedance and wherein the mass material has an associated acoustic impedance and material wavelength, the method further comprising determining a thickness of the mass layer based on the material wavelength of the mass material of the first matching layer section or the additional matching layer section, the acoustic impedance of the mass material of the first matching layer section or the additional matching layer section and the acoustic impedance of the spring material of the first matching layer section or the additional matching layer section.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the spring material, of the first matching layer section or the additional matching layer section, has an associated acoustic impedance and material wavelength, the method further comprising determining a thickness of the spring layer based on the material wavelength of the spring material and the acoustic impedance of the spring material.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the acoustic impedance of each of the matching layer sections based on one of an exponentially decreasing acoustic impedance and a linearly decreasing impedance.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the acoustic impedance of each of the matching layer sections based on an acoustic impedance of one of the piezoelectric layer and the quarter-wavelength matching layer and an acoustic impedance of water.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein an acoustic performance of the stack is based on modeling the matching layer structure using a lumped circuit for a quarter-wavelength transmission line, a total number of the matching layer sections being based on the acoustic performance of the stack.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an inductance and a capacitance for each of the first matching layer section and the additional matching layer section based on an acoustic impedance of the first matching layer section and the additional matching layer section, respectively, and a resonant frequency of the probe;

the inductance configured to characterize the spring layer of the first matching layer section or the additional matching layer section and the capacitance configured to characterize the mass layer of the first matching layer section or the additional matching layer section; and

determining an acoustic performance of the stack based on the inductance and the capacitance.