Ultrasonic sector scanner utilizing rotating transducer

Claim 1

A hand-held ultrasonic sector scanner comprising a housing having a handle portion and a separated end portion, a hollow shaft rotatably mounted in said handle portion and said end portion of said housing, a motor mounted within said handle portion of said housing axially aligned with said shaft and coupled to rotate said shaft, a transducer support wheel in said end portion and including a plurality of transducers, said wheel being axially aligned with and coupled to said shaft for rotating said plurality of transducers, electronic circuitry mounted within said handle portion of said housing for controlling said transducers and processing electrical signals therefrom, means for electrically conducting said electronic circuitry and said transducers including a bushing mounted on said shaft within said handle portion and a plurality of slip-rings on said bushing and spaced along said shaft and a plurality of brushes engaging said plurality of slip-rings, each slip-ring being continuous, first conductive means electrically interconnecting said brushes and said electronic circuitry and second conductive means extending through said hollow shaft and electrically interconnecting said slip-rings and said transducers, a brush support block mounted to said housing in association with said slip-rings, and optical indexing means within said handle portion and including an optical emitter and an optical detector mounted in spaced alignment in said brush support assembly, a disc integral with said bushing mounted on said shaft, said disc having a notch in a peripheral portion, said disc passing between said optical emitter and said optical detector whereby an index signal is generated by said optical detector in response to light passing through said notch.