Design of a miniature ultrasound probe for 3D transesophageal echocardiography

The relatively large size of most of the current 3D Transesophageal Echocardiography probes (TEE) enables their usage in adults for short procedures only. In this paper, we propose a new miniature 3D TEE probe with a head volume of 1 cm³, that would be suitable for use in neonates or for prolonged transnasal use in adults. We focus on partitioned designs, in which a minority of transmit elements is directly wired out and the majority of receive elements connect to a limited number of receive cables via an ASIC that performs a nine-fold data reduction in receive mode. The designs are motivated based on the pressure and beam width of the transmitted field, and the resolution, grating lobes and side lobes in the received field.