Sub-performing transducer element detection for medical ultrasound

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10092274-B2
Application number	US-201414261303-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 24, 2014
Priority date	Dec 6, 2013
Publication date	Oct 9, 2018
Grant date	Oct 9, 2018

Abstract

Sub-performing elements of an ultrasound transducer array are detected. The power, such as current, used by or provided to the transmit driver is measured. By driving each element or group of elements separately, defective elements or groups of elements are detected from the amount of power used.

First claim

We claim:

1. An ultrasound system comprising:
an array of ultrasound transducer elements;
a transmit driver connectable or connected with the ultrasound transducer elements of the array;
a power source connected with the transmit driver;
a current sensor connected between the power source and the transmit driver to sense current from the power source provided to the transmit driver; and
a processor configured to detect a defective element of the ultrasound transducer elements based on the current.

2. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the array comprises a multi-dimensional array of thousands of the ultrasound transducer elements.

3. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the transmit driver comprises an application specific integrated circuit including pulsers for applying alternating pulses to the elements.

4. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the transmit driver comprises a plurality of channels connectable with respective ones of the ultrasound transducer elements.

5. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the current sensor comprises a resistor and an analog-to-digital converter connected across the resistor.

6. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the power source comprises a direct current source.

7. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the processor is configured to detect the defective element where the current is outside a range of operation for the array.

8. The ultrasound system of claim 1 further comprising a transmit controller, the transmit controller configured to cause the transmit driver to drive individual ones of the ultrasound transducer elements in sequence;
wherein the current sensor is configured to sense the current to the transmit driver for each of the ultrasound transducer elements during the driving; and
wherein the processor is configured to check each of the ultrasound transducer elements based on the sensed currents.

9. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the transmit driver is in a first chip connected to a first sub-set of the ultrasound transducer elements;
further comprising:
another transmit driver of a second chip connected to a second sub-set of the ultrasound transducer elements;
another current sensor positioned to sense another current from the power source provided to the second chip;
wherein the processor is configured to detect the defective element of the first sub-set based on the current and is configured to detect another defective element of the second sub-set based on the other current.

10. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the array comprises an ultrasound therapy array.

11. The ultrasound system of claim 1 wherein the transmit driver, power source, current sensor, and processor are in an ultrasound imaging system.

12. A method for detecting a sub-performing element, the method comprising:
sensing a power drawn by a transmit driver generating an electrical transmit waveform output to a transducer element of an array; and
determining an operational state of the transducer element as a function of the power, the operational state being one of sub-performing and performing.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein sensing the power comprises sensing a current draw by the transmit driver.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein determining comprises determining that the operational state is sub-performing where the power is outside a range of powers.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising repeating the sensing and determining for each of a plurality of transducer elements of the array.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein different transmit driver chips connect with different groups of transducer elements of the array, and wherein sensing and determining is performed separately for each one of the groups.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising indicating whether the array is sub-performing or not as a function of a number of elements of the array determined to be sub-performing.

18. An ultrasound system comprising:
a transducer comprising a multi-dimensional array of elements;
first and second transmitter chips connected with first and second groups of the elements, respectively;
first and second sensors between a power supply and the first and second transmitter chips to sense a characteristic of power supplied from the power supply to the first and second transmitter chips, respectively; and
a processor configured to determine performance of the elements from the characteristics sensed by the first and second sensors.

19. The ultrasound system of claim 18 wherein the transducer comprises a therapy transducer.

20. The ultrasound system of claim 18 wherein the first and second sensors are integrated within a medical ultrasound system used for patients.

Assignees

• Siemens Medical Solutions Usa Inc

Inventors

• Hopple Jerry D
• Liu Dalong
• Barnes Stephen R
• Petersen David A
• Brock Colin
• Lazenby John C

Classifications

• B06B2201/76

  Medical, dental · CPC title

• B06B2201/20

  Application to multi-element transducer · CPC title

• A61N2007/0078

  with multiple treatment transducers · CPC title

• G01S7/5205

  Means for monitoring or calibrating · CPC title

• A61B8/58 Primary

  Testing, adjusting or calibrating the diagnostic device · CPC title