The Evolution of Ultrasound Transducers

The Evolution of Ultrasound Transducers

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1940s, Dr Karl Dussik in Austria ——the first physician to use ultrasound in medical diagnosis.

1951 – Howry et al demonstrated the first clinical 2D B-mode image

1957 – Pan-scanner developed

1965 – The first real-time scanner developed as the Vidoson system by Siemens Medical Systems in Germany

1970’s and 80’s –  development of scan converters making gray-scale imaging possible, mechanical sector scanners,  multielement transducers,  therapeutic transducers, focused high-intensity transducers

Melissa Genovese: Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography

1790 – Lazzaro Spallanzani first discovered that bats maneuvered in flight using their hearing rather than sight

1826- Jean-Daniel Colladon  discovered sonography using an underwater bell, successfully and accurately determining the speed of sound in water.

Who Invented Ultrasound?

1794  – Lazzaro Spallanzani – First studied echolocation in bats

1877 – Jacques and Pierre Currie were the first to discover piezoelectricity.  Ultrasound transducers or probes receive and emit sound waves by using the piezoelectric effect.

1915 – Paul Langevin, invented a hydrophone, which was referred to as the “first transducer”

From 1949 to 1951, Joseph Holmes and Douglas Howry pioneered the invention of B-mode ultrasound equipment. This included the 2D B-mode linear compound scanner. In addition, John Wild and John Reid created a handheld B-mode device during this time, which was used to help detect breast tumors.

In 1953, Inge Elder, a physician and C. Hellmuth Hertz, an engineer, became the first to perform an echocardiogram using an echo test control device.

Most credit Dr. Ian MacDonald with the invention of ultrasound. Dr. MacDonald was the first to incorporate ultrasound into the OB/GYN field of medicine in 1958.

In 1966 when Dennis Watkins, John Reid and Don Baker created pulse Doppler ultrasound technology. This new technology allowed for imaging of blood flow throughout many layers of the heart.

The 1970s also proved to be a great decade for ultrasound as many new developments came about including:

• Continuous wave Doppler
• Spectral Wave Doppler
• Color Doppler

The 1980s was the decade when the first 3D ultrasound technology was created. It was invented by Kazunori Baba from the University of Tokyo. The first 3D image of a fetus was taken in 1986.

During the 1990s, the adoption of 4D capabilities became possible and ultrasound guided biopsies started to surface.

CME Science: Who Invented Ultrasound

Transducer design for imaging systems has undergone significant evolution over the years, from simple fixed single crystals to mechanically scanned elements and now to a variety of multielement arrays—linear, phased, annular, curvilinear, 2D, and so forth.³¹ The older single-element and mechanically scanned transducers had a fixed focal depth determined by the transducer design. Internally focused transducers relied on either a curved active element or a curved internal mirrored surface to provide a focal point. 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/8756479315618207#_i5