Capacitive micro-machined ultrasonic transducer for element transducer apertures

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United States of America Patent

PATENT NO 8456958
APP PUB NO 20070193354A1
SERIAL NO

11357079

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Abstract

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A capacitive micro-machined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) array includes an improved elementary aperture for imaging operations. The transducer can be of a linear, curved linear, annular, matrix or even single surface configuration. The elementary apertures thereof are formed by a specific arrangement of capacitive micromachined membranes (CMM) so as to exhibit ideal acoustical and electrical behavior when operated with imaging systems. The CMM arrangements can be either conventional where the element transducers of the array are uniformly shaped by predefined CMMs in a manner such as to exhibit acoustic behavior similar to a piezoelectric transducer, or can be more sophisticated, wherein each element transducer is formed by a specific combination of different CMMs (i.e., of a different size and/or shape) so as to provide the transducer with built-in acoustic apodization that can be implemented in the azimuth and/or elevation dimension of the device.

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Patent Owner(s)

Patent OwnerAddress
VERMON37000 TOURS

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Inventor(s)

Inventor Name Address # of filed Patents Total Citations
Dufait, Remi Tours, FR 5 138
Felix, Nicolas Tours, FR 6 178
Flesch, Aimé Andrésy, FR 4 27
Nguyen-Dinh, An La Riche, FR 44 564

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