Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I might not get what I want, but I guess I got what I need. (Ultrasound reading notes)

Do you ever wonder how medical ultrasound scanners work? Because I sure did. I still do, actually, and I've taken a course describing the subject and I've been reading and ebay-browsing all night on the subject. Here are a few points of general interest that I've discovered.


  1. Some ultrasound components can also be used for making pain field generators (2). Allegedly. 
  2. The cheapest medical ultrasound transducers on the market are all endocavity probes. That means they get shoved inside you, one way or the other. (there are actually 3 common ways, and that does not vary by gender. Sorry.). I've recently seen some things I wish I could un-see. Things that I'm too kind to link to here. But since you're a curious reader, here's a fun fact from our friends at CIVCO: ”Recommended for every transrectal and transvaginal scanning procedure, CIVCO's endocavity covers are available in sterile and non-sterile ” 
  3. Medical ultrasound scanners operate (on the transducer side anyhoo) at very high power levels that I don't trust myself with, so I'm building something very scaled down for the time being. 

Monday, December 3, 2012

Choosing a sensor for my Ultrasound Scanner project


I need help choosing a sensor for my ultrasound/sound sensor project. I need a sensor which is cheap, because this is a personal project, and I want one which could work in a B-mode ultrasound scanner. Those goals are probably mutually exclusive, but I think I can find something better than my current sensor, Digikey's "SPM0404UD5", the only US sensor I found for sale in small quantities. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Reading material suggestions for someone hoping to build a B-mode ultrasound scanner would also be great. I doubt there's a good book addressing this exact task, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Below is a description of my project goal, my background, and my very early design of my project.