Patent ID: 11911219
Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 0:
1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus that generates an ultrasonic image of a subject by using an ultrasonic probe, the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:
a transducer unit that is arranged in the ultrasonic probe and performs transmission and reception of ultrasonic waves;
a stepping motor that is arranged in the ultrasonic probe and moves the transducer unit;
a motor controller that sends a drive signal of a microstep drive method to the stepping motor;
an encoder that is arranged in the ultrasonic probe, detects rotational motion of the stepping motor, and generates a detection signal having a pulse train shape depending on an amount of rotational displacement per unit time of the stepping motor; and
a digital arithmetic circuit that detects each rise or fall of a pulse of the detection signal, detects each rise or fall of a microstep of the drive signal when the stepping motor rotates to obtain a number of microsteps of the drive signal, and generates high-resolution position data in which a resolution of first position data of the transducer unit obtained from the detection signal is increased by interpolating the first position data of the transducer unit at a timing between the detections of each rise or fall of the pulse of the detection signal with the number of microsteps of the drive signal as a reference.