US Patent 8182428 Dual frequency band ultrasound transducer arrays

An acoustic probe transmits/receives acoustic pulses with frequencies both in a high frequency (HF), and a selectable amount of lower frequency (LF1, LF2, . . . , LFn, . . . ) bands. The radiation surfaces of at least two of the multiple frequency bands have a common region. The arrays and elements can be of a general type such as annular arrays, phased or switched arrays, linear arrays with division in both azimuth and elevation direction, like a 1.5D, a 1.75D and a full 2D array, or curved arrays. The element division, array type, and array aperture sizes for the different bands can also be different.