Patent Document ID: 4030342
Application ID: 05614359
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An acoustic microscope for imaging an object of interest at a plurality of aspects, comprising: a. an acoustic transmitter for generating focused acoustic waves along an axis of propagation and having an acoustic lens at one end thereof for focusing the acoustic waves to a focal point; b. an acoustic receiver for receiving along an axis of reception the acoustic waves propagated from the transmitter, said receiver having an acoustic lens at one end thereof for recollimating the received waves and a transducer opposite thereto for converting the recollimated waves into electrical signals; c. means for positioning the acoustic lens of the acoustic transmitter and the acoustic lens of the acoustic receiver so that the focal points of each lens are coincident with each other; d. means providing relative movement between the object and the microscope in a planar scanning pattern while maintaining the coincident focal points of each lens in the plane of the scanning pattern so that the object of interest modulates the acoustic waves and the electrical signals from the transducer converted therefrom; and e. means for rotating the plane of the scanning pattern about an axis passing through the coincident focal points of the lenses while maintaining the coincident focal points of each lens in the plane of the scanning pattern so that the object of interest can be imaged in a plurality of aspects; and f. means connected to the transducer for recording the electrical signals corresponding to the acoustic waves modulated by the object of interest.