JPH0640679B2 - Ultrasonic probe manufacturing method - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and more particularly, to an ultrasonic probe having a sensor section using a composite piezoelectric body and a method for manufacturing the ultrasonic probe.

[Background of the Invention] In the ultrasonic probe described in JP-A-57-32200, a transducer is bonded to a conductive support with a conductive adhesive, the transducer is cut into a matrix, and the signal electrode side is the front surface. The ground electrode side constitutes an ultrasonic probe having a rear surface. Therefore, in this example, the ultrasonic probe using the composite piezoelectric body can be realized relatively easily, but there is a restriction that the support is a conductor and the signal electrode is formed on the front surface.

[Object of the Invention]

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing an ultrasonic probe having good performance, which is easily configured by using a composite piezoelectric body.

[Outline of Invention]

The feature of the present invention is that a piezoelectric material such as zircon / lead titanate-based ceramics is adhered onto a sound wave absorber with a conductive adhesive or the like, and a vibrator is cut into a matrix shape by a dicing saw or the like, and vibration is generated by a composite piezoelectric material Create a child block and configure a probe. At this time, a cutting groove that reaches the sound wave absorber is formed between the oscillator blocks, the signal electrode side becomes the rear surface, and the acoustic impedance of the conductive adhesive and the sound wave absorber is made substantially equal. The configuration is such that unnecessary reflection of ultrasonic waves inside is reduced.

Example of Invention

The structure of the composite piezoelectric body 101, which is the subject of the present invention, is first described below.
Shown in the figure. The composite piezoelectric material 101 is a columnar piezoelectric material 102 such as zircon / lead titanate-based ceramics and an epoxy,
It is made of resin 103 such as polyurethane. This type of composite piezoelectric body can be formed by the method disclosed in JP-A-58-21883.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. This is an example applied to an electronic linear ultrasonic probe, in which a vibrator 201 such as zircon / lead titanate-based ceramics is made of an insulating material by a conductive adhesive 202, and a sound absorber 20 is formed.
After being bonded to No. 3, it is two-dimensionally cut with a dicing saw or the like to form a columnar piezoelectric body 204, and the cut groove is filled with a resin 205 such as epoxy or polyurethane. Here, three rows of columnar piezoelectric bodies and a composite piezoelectric body 206 formed of resin form strip-shaped vibrator blocks 207, 208, .... In the oscillator block, the cutting groove 209 is retained in the conductive adhesive 202, and the cutting groove 210 separating the oscillator blocks reaches the sound wave absorber 203.

Further, the signal line is taken out from the exposed electrode portion 211.
You can take it out from such as. Further, the ground-side electrode is formed on the front surface by vapor deposition of gold or chromium or screen printing of a conductive adhesive. Needless to say, when forming the ground electrode, an insulating material is formed on the exposed electrode portion 211 or the like so that the signal adhesion and the ground electrode are not connected. The application to the electronic linear probe has been described above, but the present invention can be applied to other probes.
Without forming a cutting groove 210 for separating each oscillator block,
The signal electrode becomes one common electrode if only the cutting groove 209 that is retained in the conductive adhesive 202 is used. At this time, if the shape of the ground electrode is a circle, an ellipse, a multiple ring, or the like, a probe made of a composite piezoelectric body corresponding to an ordinary circular or elliptical multiple ring probe is constructed. In addition, the cutting groove 21
If 0 is formed two-dimensionally, it can be configured as a two-dimensional probe made of a composite piezoelectric material.

It is also possible for the sound wave absorber to have a convex surface or a concave surface, but in this case, cutting becomes difficult. It is also possible to use the front electrode as the signal side and the rear electrode as the ground side.

Further, in the present invention, the thickness of the conductive adhesive becomes considerably thick, but if it is left as it is, unnecessary reflection of ultrasonic waves in the conductive adhesive layer occurs, which becomes a problem. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate unnecessary reflection by making the acoustic impedances of the conductive adhesive and the sound absorber substantially the same.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily realize an ultrasonic probe having good performance by using the composite piezoelectric bodies having various configurations.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to easily realize an ultrasonic probe with good performance using a composite piezoelectric body, and therefore it is very useful. That is, since the acoustic impedance of the conductive adhesive and the acoustic impedance of the sound absorber are substantially the same, unnecessary reflection of ultrasonic waves in the conductive adhesive can be eliminated, and the signal line can be easily taken out from the oscillator block. An ultrasonic probe can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional view of a composite piezoelectric body, and FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional view showing the structure of a composite piezoelectric electronic linear ultrasonic probe according to the present invention. 101, 206 ... Composite piezoelectric material, 102, 204 ... Column-shaped piezoelectric material, 103, 205 ... Resin, 201 ... Piezoelectric ceramics, 202 ... Conductive adhesive, 203 ... Sound wave absorber, 207, 208 ... ... Composite piezoelectric vibrator block, 209, 210 ... Cutting groove, 211 ... Exposed electrode section.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A first step of adhering a piezoelectric ceramics plate to an acoustic wave absorber made of an insulating material with a conductive adhesive, and a second step of forming a large number of cut grooves in the piezoelectric ceramics plate. A groove having a first depth which does not cut the adhesive layer in the second step, and a third step of filling an organic substance into the groove formed by the second step, An ultrasonic probe characterized by forming two kinds of grooves, a second depth groove for cutting a layer, and obtaining a plurality of blocks of composite piezoelectric material separated by the second depth groove. Child manufacturing method. 2. The method for manufacturing an ultrasonic probe according to claim 1, wherein the acoustic impedance of the adhesive layer and the acoustic impedance of the acoustic wave absorber are substantially equal to each other. 3. In the first step, the adhesive is continuously applied to the adhesive layer on the surface of the acoustic wave absorber to which the piezoelectric ceramic plate is not adhered, and in the second step, The method for manufacturing an ultrasonic probe according to claim 1, wherein a cutting groove is formed in a portion of the applied adhesive layer. 4. The method of manufacturing an ultrasonic probe according to claim 3, further comprising the step of connecting a signal line from a portion of the applied adhesive layer. .