Patent ID: 8100015
Filing Date: 2012-01-24
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. An ultrasonic inspection apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic probe provided with an ultrasonic transducer including a plurality of piezoelectric elements and a position detection device; a drive element selector which is connected to the plurality of piezoelectric elements of the ultrasonic transducer provided and which selects a required piezoelectric element; a signal generator generating a drive signal for selecting the required piezoelectric element; a signal detection circuit which allows the piezoelectric element to transmit an ultrasonic wave to an inspection object through an acoustic transmission medium, which receives a reflection echo of the ultrasonic wave and which detects an electric signal of the reflection echo; a signal processor continuously generating three-dimensional imaging data inside of the inspection object by processing the electric signal of the detected reflection echo through a parallel arithmetic processing; a position converting circuit configured to output an imaging-start trigger signal to the signal generator in response to a position detection signal detected by the position detection device, the imaging-start trigger signal being a signal generated when the ultrasonic transducer is moved by more than a preset constant amount; and a display device displaying an imaging result in which a position detection signal of the ultrasonic transducer taken from the position converting circuit and a plurality of image data sets generated with the generation of the trigger signal and taken from the signal processor are integrally coupled to each other.