Patent ID: 9089874
Filing Date: 2015-07-28
Classification: A61B,B06B

Abstract:
1. An ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus including an ultrasonic probe having a plurality of vibrating elements, the plurality of vibrating elements having electromechanical coupling coefficients that vary in accordance with the magnitude of a bias voltage supplied from a bias voltage supply unit, an ultrasonic image constructing unit for constructing an ultrasonic image based on a reflection echo signal received from the ultrasonic probe, and a display unit for displaying the ultrasonic image, the ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus comprising: an operation unit that determines what percentage, in a predetermined range of percentages, of collapse voltage should be set as a bias voltage, wherein the collapse voltage is obtained from a histogram including collapse voltages of the plurality of vibrating elements distributed with respect to frequency of the collapse voltages; a calculation unit for calculating the magnitude of the bias voltage, the magnitude of the bias voltage being lower than a magnitude of the collapse voltage obtained from the histogram, wherein the operation unit sets the calculation unit so that the percentage of the collapse voltage is set as the magnitude of the bias voltage; and a control unit for controlling the magnitude of a bias voltage which is supplied to the plurality of vibrating elements from the bias voltage supply unit.