Transducer Prototyping

The research package provides a method for setting up transducers by specifying element count, pitch, radius, etc. This can be useful when prototyping new probes. The Ultrasonix probe pin-out can be found online at the research forum http://research.ultrasonix.com in the Transducer section.

Defining a Transducer

The file probes.xml is used to define a transducer, this file can be edited to add new models.

 2  0.000000     9500000     9000000   60   128 300  0

The above example shows the minimal information that should be set for a transducer definition. Looking deeper into file, one can find examples for defining biopsy guide information, stepper motor control, and many other transducer properties.

Transducer ID

Ideally a new ID should be created to avoid confusion within the software; in the probes.xml file, the attribute id can be modified. The code pins C0 - C5 on the connector should be programmed, where GND=0 (pin tied to ground) and NC=1 (leave open) to form the binary format of the code.

An example to create a transducer with code=3.

Presets

To get started with imaging, a preset will need to be created and associated with the new transducer. The simplest way to do this is to copy a master preset from another transducer that has similar parameters and properties. For instance, a new 10MHz linear array should copy from the L14-5/38 master preset, the associated file within the software is GEN-General (L14-5 38mm).xml. Once copied, the file should be renamed to something different like GEN-General (My Probe).xml.

Editing the master preset file is relatively easy, the important information is to change the attributes of the preset node, where the probe attribute is the ID of the new transducer.



Imaging parameter values can be adjusted directly in the XML file, or the transducer can be loaded with the research software with the default copied preset, and using the research menus, the parameters can be adjusted until imaging is optimized, whereupon the preset can be saved and overwritten. It may be best to contact an Ultrasonix support member to help with this step.