Patent ID: 9670522
Date: 2017-06-06
CPC Classifications: A61B,C12Q,G01N,G01S

Claim:
1. A method of ultrasonically imaging a heterogeneous 3D-cell population without physically probing, the cell population positioned on a reflective surface to define an x,y plane having a thickness in a z-direction, the method comprising: pulsing ultrasound waves having a wave frequency of about 10 MHz to about 2 GHz through a lens rod, wherein the lens rod focuses the ultrasound waves onto the cell population via a concave lens-head, and wherein the cell population is positioned on the reflective surface such that the ultrasound waves are reflected back to the lens-head; receiving the reflected waves through the lens head and the lens rod at a signal receiver; scanning the lens-head across multiple points in the x,y plane; and at each point in the x,y plane, moving the lens-head in a z-direction such that a signal is received at multiple intervals in the z-direction for each point in the x,y plane.