Patent ID: 7956510

Claim:
A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (cMUT) system comprising: a cMUT having a first electrode and a second electrode; at least one of a transmission input signal port and a reception signal port connected to one of the first electrode and the second electrode, wherein the transmission input signal port is adapted for applying a transmission input signal to the cMUT in a transmission mode, and the reception signal port is adapted for receiving an output signal from the cMUT in a reception mode, and wherein the transmission input signal has a non-modulated transmission frequency ftx, and the output signal has a non-modulated reception frequency frx; and an AC signal source for generating an AC carrier signal to be applied to the cMUT through a modulation signal port connected to one of the first electrode and the second electrode of the cMUT, wherein the AC carrier signal has a carrier frequency fcarrier which is different from the non-modulated transmission frequency ftx and the non-modulated reception frequency fxr.