A New Ergonomic Cable for Medical Ultrasound Imaging

Abstract

High-end medical ultrasound imaging utilizes hundreds of piezo-electric transducer elements to achieve a quality image that can be helpful to a clinician when working with patients. These elements require individual interconnections to the imaging system via conductors bundled in a cable. To maintain a practical size of the bundle and not to impose excessive stress on a sonographer, smaller and limper ultrasound cable bundles are always desirable. This paper introduces a new cable design with a smaller outer diameter and half the weight of a conventional cable construction using the same center conductor size; the new cable is characterized electrically and acoustically, and demonstrates excellent ergonomic, electrical and imaging performance.