<title>Diffractive optics for photonic packaging of laser diodes and fiber optics</title>

Conventional ultrasound scanners utilize electronic transmitters and receivers at the scanner with a separate coaxial cable connected to each transducer element in the handle. The number of transducer elements determines the size and weight of the transducer cable assembly that connects the imaging array to the scanner. 2-D arrays that allow new imaging modalities to be introduced significantly increase the channel count making the transducer cable assembly more difficult to handle. Therefore, reducing the size and increasing the flexibility of the transducer cable assembly is a concern. Fiber optics can be used to transmit signals optically and has distinct advantages over standard coaxial cable to increase flexibility and decrease the weight of the transducer cable for large channel numbers. The use of fiber optics to connect the array and the scanner entails the use of optoelectronics such as detectors and laser diodes to send and receive signals. In transmit, optoelectronics would have to be designed to produce high-voltage wide-bandwidth pulses across the transducer element. In this paper, we describe a 48 channel ultrasound system having 16 optoelectronic transmitters and 32 conventional electronic receivers. We investigated both silicon avalanche photodiodes (APD's) and GaAs lateral photoconductive semiconductor switches (PCSS's) for producing the transmit pulses. A Siemens SI-1200 scanner and a 2.25 MHz linear array were used to compare the optoelectronic system to a conventional electronic transmit system. Transmit signal results and images in tissue mimicking phantoms of cysts and tumors are provided for comparison.

Download Full-text

Designing high-resolution slow scan CCD-based TEM camera systems

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010012936x ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 946-947

Author(s):

James F. Mancuso ◽

William B. Maxwell ◽

Russell E. Camp ◽

Mark H. Ellisman

Keyword(s):

Fiber Optics ◽

Ccd Camera ◽

High Energy ◽

Phosphor Layer ◽

X Ray ◽

Light Production ◽

Camera Systems ◽

X Ray Imaging ◽

Electron Image ◽

Scintillating Fiber

The imaging requirements for 1000 line CCD camera systems include resolution, sensitivity, and field of view. In electronic camera systems these characteristics are determined primarily by the performance of the electro-optic interface. This component converts the electron image into a light image which is ultimately received by a camera sensor.Light production in the interface occurs when high energy electrons strike a phosphor or scintillator. Resolution is limited by electron scattering and absorption. For a constant resolution, more energy deposition occurs in denser phosphors (Figure 1). In this respect, high density x-ray phosphors such as Gd2O2S are better than ZnS based cathode ray tube phosphors. Scintillating fiber optics can be used instead of a discrete phosphor layer. The resolution of scintillating fiber optics that are used in x-ray imaging exceed 20 1p/mm and can be made very large. An example of a digital TEM image using a scintillating fiber optic plate is shown in Figure 2.

Download Full-text