Patent ID: 7923893

Claim:
An ultrasound transducer for transmitting and/or receiving acoustic energy at faces of elements distributed substantially along azimuth and/or elevation dimensions, the transducer comprising: a plurality of membranes on a plurality of different respective planes more parallel than perpendicular with each other, the planes being more perpendicular than parallel with the faces, each of the membranes being separated by, at least, a gas or vacuum chamber from a first adjacent one of the membranes and free of connection at a center to a second adjacent one of the membranes, each of the membranes being separate at flexible regions from the membranes of other of the planes, and each of the membranes extending between and terminating, in the respective planes, by connection to a substrate and a respective top of a respective ridge such that separate ridges formed by pairs of the membranes are separated by the substrate and are conductively isolated; and conductive surfaces substantially on the membranes.