• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2015

A ultrasonic probe is very important in medical ultrasonic image, but the frequency of probe defects are often. Therefore practical tools for probe based ultrasonic QA should be developed. Advanced research on the effects of the probe defects on the quality of ultrasonic images is required. This study has investigated the effects of the defects in the probe elements influence Doppler images in the medical ultrasonic scanners. Especially the defects in a set of adjacent elements(SAE) electrically disconnected influence Doppler images were tested. The results show Doppler brightness and velocity became rapidly reduced as the defected elements is located centrally, as the defected elements is activated. The more the defected elements increased, the more Doppler brightness and velocity increased. As a set of the element disconnected moved, it appeared Doppler velocity starting to decrease and then was followed by brightness. The strength is not consistent with the velocity in the number and location of the defected elements. The defects in the probe elements influence Doppler velocity when the defected elements got out of the elements activated at Doppler mode.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.443-449
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• 2015

An ultrasound probe has a big impact on Doppler images even though it has very high risk of frequent function-breakdowns occurring in medical ultrasound scanners. This study experimentally analyses the impacts of an ultrasonic probe's defected elements on power & color Doppler images. The results show that, the bigger the size of defected probe elements is, and the closer a group of action elements is to the center, the more the brightness of images and the velocity of Doppler diminish. When elements' defects increase in color & power Doppler images, false images are formed to be mistaken for blood-vessel plaque in neighboring regions. Accordingly, whenever element defects are suspected, we need check-up process in B-mode. From this respective, it is advisable to have primary interest in a probe and carry out continuous probe QA for ultrasonography.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.207-216
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• 1999

A phased array is a multi-element piezoelectric device whose elements are individually excited by electric pulses at programmed delay time. One of the advantages of using phased array in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) application over conventional ultrasonic transducers is their great maneuverability of ultrasonic beam. There are some parameters such as the number and the size of the piezoelectric elements and the inter-element spacing of the elements to design phased array transducer. In this study, the characteristic of ultrasonic beam for phased array transducer due to the variation of the number of elements has been simulated for ultrasonic SH-wave on the basis of Huygen's principle. Ultrasonic beam directivity and focusing due to the change of time delay of each element were discussed due to the change of the number of piezoelectric elements. It was found that ultrasonic beam was much more spreaded and hence its sound pressure was decreased as steering angle of ultrasonic beam was increased. In addition, the ability of ultrasonic bean focusing decreased gradually with the increase of focal length at the same piezoelectric elements. However, the ability of beam focusing was improved as the number of consisting elements was increased.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.117-124
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• 2014

This study has investigated the effects of the defects in the probe elements influence Doppler images in the medical ultrasonic scanners. This work was implemented that the quality of Doppler images depended on the extent and location of the probe element defected. The probe performance was rated in terms of the number of piezoelectric elements lost and this was studied in the experiment by electrical disconnection to the elements. The results showed that Doppler velocity became rapidly reduced as the defected elements encountered with the element group activated at the Doppler mode, not as the flow velocity. The effect of the probe defect is decreased when the defects occurred at the element group activated for Doppler mode, as was increased the number of the elements. It was observed that the higher the flow velocity of Doppler flow phantom is, the wider the spectrum of Doppler is. And the Doppler velocity soared up and the dispersion of image brightness is increased when the defected elements got out of the elements activated at Doppler mode. The result showed that TADVP(time-average-Doppler-velocity-profile) is decreased with the increase of the probe element defect, especilly in the region of high frequency. It is expected that the research of various defects of probe elements are needed, and this study can be practical tools for probe based ultrasonic QA in the future.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• spring
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• pp.349-352
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• 2002

초음파 진단용으로 널리 사용되는 1차원 배열 압전형 초음파 변환기는 변환기내의 인접한 소자들간의 간섭에 의해 그 특성에 많은 영향을 받는다. 특히 각 소자 사이에 위치한 커프 및 음향 벽의 형상은 변환기 내 음향 간섭에 매우 큰 영향을 미친다. 그러므로 본 연구에서는 일반적으로 복부진단용으로 사용되는 압전형 1차원 배열 의료용 초음파 변환기에서 커프 및 음향 벽의 형상에 따른 음향간섭 레벨의 변화 경향을 유한 요소 해석법을 이용하여 분석하였다. 해석 결과를 바탕으로 소자간 음향간섭을 일으키는 원인을 규명하고, 나아가 음향 간섭레벨을 최소화하기 위한 구조적 방안을 도출하였다. 이러한 연구 결과는 향후 진단용 초음파 변환기의 최적 설계를 위해 중요한 자료가 될 것이며, 의료 치료용, 비파괴 검사용, 그리고 수중 초음파 변환기에도 적용이 가능할 것이다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.160-160
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• 2004

초음파 여기를 이용한 물체 이송 시스템은 최근 급속히 발달하고 있는 광산업이나 반도체 산업에서 기존의 이송 시스템의 단점을 보완하기 위해 개발되었다. 기존의 이송 시스템들은 이송공정이나 검사 공정 등에서 광소자의 표면손상이나 자기장에 의한 반도체 소자의 전자적 배열의 손상이 우려되었다. 하지만 PZT 액츄에이터로 구동되는 초음파 발생장치(Ultrasonic wave generator)에서 발생한 초음파 여기를 이용하여 물체를 이송시킬 경우 이러한 단점은 보완된다.(중략)

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.299-306
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• 2015

A conventional phased array system can control an ultrasonic beam electronically by adjusting the excitation time delay of individual elements in a multi-element probe and produce an ultrasonic image. In Contrast, full matrix capture (FMC) is a data acquisition process that allows receiving ultrasonic signals from one single shot of the phased array transducer element through all the other elements and captures the complete dataset from every possible transmit-receive combination. This FMC data can be used to create the ultrasonic image in post processing. It is possible to produce not only images equivalent to conventional phased array image but also total focusing method (TFM) images with improved resolution and sharpness, which is virtually focused at any point in a region of interest. In this paper, the system that can perform FMC by using a conventional phased array instrument is developed, and a study was conducted on the imaging algorithms to reconstruct sector B-scan and TFM images from FMC dataset.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.476-482
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• 2010

The ultrasonic transient fields and B-mode images of a point target which were simulated for a medical ultrasonic probe with a few defective piezo-elements were compared with those for a normal probe. The present study considered a 3.5 MHz linear array probe whose acoustic beam was formed by the 64 active elements of total 192 elements. The results showed that the maximum amplitude and -3 dB width of the acoustic fields by main-lobes decreased linearly as the defective element number increased from one to four. However, the depths of foci remained almost unchanged, and the pressure differences between main-lobes and side-lobes tended to decrease due to rise in pressures in side-lobes. Such changes in ultrasonic fields affected the B-mode images of point targets. So the artifacts were formed in the right and left side of the target, and the lateral spatial resolutions were decreased while the axial resolution was almost the same.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.187-188
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• 2014

초음파 전파 매개물은 초음파의 손실 없는 투과력을 위한 1차적인 목적 이외에 피부위에서 탐촉소자의 부드러운 이동을 위한 부가적인 목적이 있다. 본 연구는 제형이 다른 진단초음파 전파매개물이 갖는 피부 윤활성, 피부 보습성, 건조속도 등의 초음파 매개물의 특징을 측정하고 비교하였다. 마찰계수는 점도가 높을수록 높았으며 제제의 건조속도는 고분자 수화젤이 가장 높았다. 오일 함유량이 많을수록 수분증발이 나타나지 않았다. 피부수분함량에서는 저점도 에멀전이 높은 수분함량을 나타냈으며 수분함량 감소 정도가 가장 완만히 나타났다. 오일성분을 적절히 사용한 에멀전 형태의 초음파 전파매개물은 피부 보습효과, 피부 유연작용의 피부 건강측면과 피부-탐촉소자간의 피부 윤활성면에서 효과적인 제형임을 알 수 있었다.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.255-260
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• 2015

We have fabricated an optoacoustic ultrasound generator based on nanostructured germanium (Ge). Ge thin films were deposited via e-beam evaporation and then etched using a metal-assisted chemical (MAC) method to form nanostructured Ge films. The measured intensity of ultrasound from the nanostructured Ge covered with PDMS was about 3 times stronger than that of 100-nm-thick chromium (Cr). When the nanostructured Ge was embedded in the PDMS, the intensity of ultrasound became 8.5 times as strong compared to the 100-nm-thick Cr.