Shiroh Saitoh, Takashi Takeuchi, Tsuyoshi Kobayashi, Kouichi Harada, Senji Shimanuki, and Yohachi Yamashita
ABSTRACT A novel 128-channel phased array probe for echocardiography with a center frequency of 3.7~MHz using 0.91Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.09PbTiO3 (PZN-9%PT) single crystal has been fabricated to realize greater sensitivity and broader bandwidth properties. The echo amplitude of the PZN-9%PT single-crystal probe is about 5~dB higher than that of the conventional lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic probe, and the fractional bandwidth is about 25 percentage points broader. The quality of B mode images obtained by the PZN-9%PT probe satisfies the performance of the two types of conventional PZT ceramic probes that have center frequencies of 2.5 and 3.75 MHz. At the reference frequency of 3~MHz, the Doppler sensitivity of the PZN-9%PT probe is about 5~dB higher than that of the 3.75~MHz PZT probe; the blood flow of a pulmonary vein in a hard-to-image patient is much more clearly imaged than in the case of using the PZT probe. These superior images are attributable to the use of sufficiently large PZN-9%PT single crystals obtained by the self-flux method.
1999 IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Vol. 46, pp. 414-421, 1999
© 1999, by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.