How Does Ultrasound Scanning Work?

Introduction

When many people think about ultrasound scanning, they think about ultrasounds during pregnancy. However, ultrasound scanning is a tool used in a wide range of fields ranging from other areas of the medical field to the industrial workplace. This technology works on the basis of pulse and echo to locate specific types of substances and map out their exact locations.

Pulse

Ultrasound scanning works by producing very high-pitched sound waves. These sound waves are so high that humans are unable to hear them. In fact, most ultrasound scanner equipment emits sounds waves between 3-10 MHz. Most humans can only hear between 20 and 20,000 MHz. To get an image, these sound waves are projected into the subject being tested using a transducer.

Transducer

A transducer is a piece of equipment that is placed between the sound waves and the subject being tested. The transducer converts ultrasound waves into ultrasonic waves.

Echo

Once the ultrasonic waves are directed into the body, they travel through the substance being tested. For example, when an ultrasound is being done on a human, the ultrasonic waves penetrate the tissues of the body. Once the waves hit a different acoustic nature or even a different texture, the waves are immediately bounced back to the imaging equipment. The ultrasound scanning equipment can then interpret the reflected signal, and use it to create a map of whatever is being scanned.

Resources

• Ultrasound Scanning Information