Ultrasound Physics

Question: Discuss about the history of ultrasound physics. Answer: The physics of ultrasound starts with the discussion of what exactly Ultrasound is. Ultrasound is similar to a normal sound that we generally hear when only physical properties are taken into consideration. However, the only difference is that it is not audible to human ear. A normal human being can listen to a sound of frequency lying between 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The frequency of above 20 kHz is known as Ultrasound and this can be heard by the species such as dogs, cat, bat, whale etc. From the period of its evolvement till now, ultrasonic physics have moved forward in an exponential manner and find its applications in the field of medicine, diagnosis, NDT, detection etc. Witnessing the application of ultrasound, it may be assumed of that the development of the technology may have been done by some of the medical professional. However, the reality is far away from this. The people involved in the development of ultrasonic physics were nowhere attached to the mechanical field; rather the y all were of different field professional (Tsung, 2012). This paper will describe all such achievements of individuals in the upbringing of the technology into play. History of Ultrasound Physics When it comes to the evolvement of any technology or any method, there is always an interesting story behind its evolvement. Same is the history of the evolvement of ultrasound physics. The word ultrasound came later into the picture, before it was termed as acoustics which is considered to be the precursor of Ultrasound. The current potential and the application of the ultrasound are the result of philosophical curiosity and intense research of some god gifted minds. The evolvement of ultrasound physics started in 6th century BC, when Pythagoras, who is famous for his Pythagoras theorem of triangles discovered the sonometer to study the mechanics in sound. The next big change that came into lime light was in the year 1794, when Lazzaro Spallanzani studied the concept of echolocation used by the bats for the movement. The bats sends the ultrasonic sound and when it hit any object it bounce back and studying this gives the idea of the size, structure and the dimension of the body. Next in the year 1877, the curie brothers came up with the bang by inventing the Ultrasonic transducers which can emit ultrasound and receive it by the concept of piezoelectric effect (Fraden, 2016). In the year 1912, the titanic sank and this was really heartening for each and every one throughout the world (Agarwal, 2013). However, this inspired Paul Langevin to invent hydrophone which can detect objects at the bottom of sea. Seeing the effect of ultrasound, the medical professional started studying and researching the properties of material for medical use and it goes on from the year 1920 to 1940. There were no major achievements in the field during this period. Later, in the year 1942 sonography was first used to transmit ultrasound through the human skull and detected the brain tumor. This brought up a revolution in the use of ultrasound in the medical field. In the year 1948, an Internist at the Naval Medical Research Institute named as George D developed equipment which can detect the gallstones. It took almost 1 year from there to understand the use of ultrasound for the diagnosis purpose, rather than only detecting. He started the work on Ultrasonic very far back, but it was only confined within the US Navy until Oct49. In the same year, an English born physicist decides to measure the changes occurred on the bowel wall with the help of Ultrasound as he thought it to be the most prominent method to determine the bowel distention. At the end of year 1949, an American radiologist developed an ultrasonic scanner using the spare parts from the radio store and equipment of radar kept for Air Force. It was in the year 1962, the first hand held B-Mode scanner was developed which was commercially launched in the US. This was the time when then model of ultrasound scanner which we use in today was developed and was brought into actual practice. To discuss about the achievements and the further scope of Ultrasonic physics an International level Conference was arranged in US in the year 1965. The pioneer of Ultrasound from all over the world attended the conference and shared their thoughts in order to bring further advancement in the existing technology. The first real time scanner was manufactured by Richard Soldner and Walter Krause which was named under Vidoson. This real time scanner is similar to the ones we are using today in diagnosis and treatment of several diseases. Since then researcher never looked back and achieved great success from designing of the echocardiogram by employing echo test and displaying it on the 2D screen. Then in the year 1966 the image of blood flow layer of the heart was developed. The next development was even bigger one in which 3D image of fetus was captured by Kazunori baba of the University of Tokyo (Baker, 2008). It was in the year of 1990s that the imaging of the ultrasonic got sophisticated and improved with excellent screen quality. At the end of 1990s 4D imaging (real time) capabilities was adopted with continuous improvement. Properties of Transducer The invention was transducer is considered to be the biggest achievement in the evolvement of the ultrasonic physics. The properties of transducers because of which it came into lime light are as follows: Emitting ultrasonic signal Work as a boundary between the control system, measurement and automation Conversion of electrical signals into other physical quantities such as motion, light, torque, energy and force Low hysteresis and noise The dynamic range of Transducers is very high. The maximum frequency of sound that can emitted from transducers may cross a value of 200 kHz. References Agarwal, A. (2013). Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits.Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, p. 43. Fraden, J. (2016). Handbook of Modern Sensors: Physics, Designs, and Applications, 5th ed. Springer. p.7 Baker, J. (2008). Joan Baker delivers the McLaughlin Lecture at the 2008 SDMS Conference. Retrieved 25 Sep, 2016, from https://www.radiologytoday.net/archive/rt_120108p28.shtml Tsung, J. (2012). History of Ultrasound and Technological Advances, Retrieved on 25 Sep, 2016, from https://www.wcume.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Tsung.pdf