US 11,815,492 B2
Methods and circuitry for built-in self-testing of circuitry and/or transducers in ultrasound devices
Chao Chen, Madison, CT (US); Youn-Jae Kook, Winchester, MA (US); Jihee Lee, Seoul (KR); Kailiang Chen, Branford, CT (US); Leung Kin Chiu, Branford, CT (US); Joseph Lutsky, Los Altos, CA (US); Nevada J. Sanchez, Guilford, CT (US); Sebastian Schaetz, Leipzig (DE); and Hamid Soleimani, Guilford, CT (US)
Assigned to BFLY Operations, Inc., Guilford, CT (US)
Filed by BFLY Operations, Inc., Guilford, CT (US)
Filed on Apr. 15, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/232,100.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/087,558, filed on Oct. 5, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/046,624, filed on Jun. 30, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/011,214, filed on Apr. 16, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2021/0325349 A1, Oct. 21, 2021
Int. Cl. G01N 29/24 (2006.01); A61B 8/00 (2006.01); H03F 1/32 (2006.01); H03K 5/24 (2006.01); H03M 3/00 (2006.01); G01N 29/30 (2006.01); G01S 7/52 (2006.01); B06B 1/02 (2006.01); G01S 15/89 (2006.01); H03F 3/45 (2006.01)
CPC G01N 29/2406 (2013.01) [A61B 8/58 (2013.01); G01N 29/30 (2013.01); G01S 7/5205 (2013.01); H03F 1/3211 (2013.01); H03F 3/45475 (2013.01); H03K 5/24 (2013.01); H03M 3/458 (2013.01); B06B 1/0292 (2013.01); G01N 2291/02475 (2013.01); G01S 15/8915 (2013.01); H03F 2200/129 (2013.01); H03F 2203/45116 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus, comprising:
a processing device in operative communication with an ultrasound device, the processing device configured to:
receive, from the ultrasound device, sets of measurements of capacitances or a parameter related to the capacitances of one or more CMUTs in the ultrasound device at each of multiple bias voltages applied to membranes of the CMUTs;
determine collapse voltages of the one or more CMUTs based on the capacitances of the CMUTs at each of the multiple bias voltages; and
cause the ultrasound device to apply a bias voltage to the membranes of the CMUTs based at least in part on the collapse voltages of the one or more CMUTs,
wherein each of the measurements of the parameter related to the capacitances of the one or more CMUTs in the ultrasound device comprises a measurement of a time for a ramp voltage to cross a reference voltage, and wherein a current is integrated onto one of the CMUTs to generate the ramp voltage when a particular bias voltage of the multiple bias voltages is applied to the CMUT.