Patent GB-1293405-A (GB)
Title: A method and apparatus for the production of images of the interior structure of solid objects
IPC: G01N33/483
Filed: 1969-12-12
Abstract: 1293405 Ultrasonic inspection devices NATIONAL RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CORP. 12 Dec 1969 [12 Dec 1968] 60700/69 Heading H4D [Also in Division H1] The interior of an object (e.g. metal or biological tissue) is examined by insonifying the object, measuring at a plurality of positions spaced approximately one-half wavelength apart at the highest insonifying frequency the resulting ultrasonic signals from the object processing the measured signals to simulate the effect of an acoustic lens, and displaying the processed signals as an image of an interior region of the object. One or more transducers (e.g. coupled to the object by a cast-iron layer or nimonic alloy) . may be used to insonify the object with short (wide-band) ultrasonic pulses, tone bursts or (if the attenuation in the object is sufficient to prevent standing waves occurring) continuous wave ultrasonic signals. A receiving transducer is tightly coupled acoustically to the object (e.g. by low melting point metal) and comprises a large piezo-electric crystal, signals from the back of which are collected by a small metal probe traversed over the unmetallized back face, by wires connected to a mosaic of small electrodes plated on the back face or by one or more contacts movable over the mosaic, or by means of a scanning electron beam; alternatively the transducer comprises a matrix of pressure-sensitive and light-sensitive field effect transistors (Fig. 7, not shown) (see Division H1) individually addressable by means of optical signals. In principle, signals from elemental areas of the receiving transducer and representing the acoustic pressure field over the transducer surface could be used concurrently, but in practice they are used sequentially by scanning. As shown in Fig. 4, object points O p  in a selected "slice" through the object are to be imaged at conformal points on a display area having M elemental areas D kl . The receiving transducer comprises N elemental areas E mn  whose signals are subjected to N respective delays for each display area D kl  (i.e. NM delays in all), the delay values being those needed to compensate for the different path lengths between corresponding object and image points via the elements E mn . Details are given of a digital system (Figs. 5A-5D and 6, none shown) for controlling the scanning and for processing the E mn  signals, in which amplified and filtered E mn  signals are range-gated, sampled in turn (the gating and the sample length determining respectively the depth and thickness of the "slice" to be imaged), multiplexed, converted to digital amplitude and position values, temporarily stored (e.g. on punched or magnetic tape or in an on-line computer), differentially delayed (e.g. by shifting along registers in the computer) then combined in M counters and applied to intensity-modulate an X-Y display (graphic display or line printer). Alternatively the processing may comprise directly forming the Fourier transform of the sound pressure distribution over the receiving transducer, by computation using the Cooley-Tukey algorithm. The displayed data may be subjected to further computer or optical processing for image enhancement or pattern recognition. Instead of sampling all the E mn  signals, only selected signals may be used. This enables simulation of different receiving transducer apertures or shapes or shading, and provides data reduction. For the latter purpose the selection can be made pseudo-random by means of a function generator (Fig. 6, not shown).