Ultrasound diagnosis technology has become one of the most important medical imaging technology, and the importance of ultrasound equipment in hospitals is becoming more and more obvious. On the basis of summarizing common faults, this paper analyzes the causes and characteristics of faults, and puts forward various methods to judge faults, so as to ensure the normal operation of equipment. It is hoped that this paper can help clinical engineers in their work!
1. Sound head failure
If a probe has an obvious dark channel, it can generally be preliminarily judged as a sound head fault after cable, sound lens and other faults are eliminated. How many wafer faults can be detected by special testing equipment, and which ones? Generally speaking, a 128 chip probe will not have much impact if several chips are broken. The image on both sides of the chip is smaller than the image on the center chip. But a dozen or more chip failures can have a big impact on an image.
When replacing the sound head, please note that the parameters of the new sound head should be consistent with or as close as possible to the original sound head. The main parameters include the geometric size, the acoustic parameters of the chip, and the shape of the probe to be replaced.

2. Housing failure
The shell of ultrasonic probe is mostly the shell of acoustic head, and the damages of other parts are usually caused by accidents. After the shell of acoustic head is cracked, coupling agent will penetrate into the inside of the probe and cause the oxidation and corrosion of the chip of acoustic head. Therefore, the failure of the shell of acoustic head also needs to be repaired as soon as possible to prevent the fault from getting bigger and bigger.

3. Cable fault
The cable of the ultrasonic probe is usually composed of hundreds to hundreds of cables, which are surrounded by a shielding layer in the cable sheath. It is the carrier for the connection between the ultrasonic head and the host system. The cable must match the impedance of the probe and the host, otherwise the image quality will be affected. Ultrasonic cables generally include signal lines, ground lines, control lines, power supply and other components. The ultrasonic transceiver signal line has a voltage of more than 100 volts at the time of transmission. Cable failures can cause system crashes, blackouts, interference, unrecognized probes, and ghosting.
Because the cable, especially the cable close to the sound head, is always in a bending state during long-term use, the cable skin will be damaged or even broken and cannot be used for a long time. In addition, some probe cables look like they are interlocked, but are actually broken inside.
If the above fault occurs, it is generally necessary to cut the cable at the fault location and reconnect it, sometimes the entire cable should be replaced. Because the probe cable is very many, very thin, so the work to connect the line is very large, so the cost is also higher. Repair cables should be carefully marked, and if more than one cable is broken, a good probe of the same type should be used for comparison.

4. Acoustic lens fault
Due to long-term direct contact with the patient's skin surface, the ultrasonic lens will produce problems in a certain period of time. The sound lens partially melts.
In acoustics, the fault of acoustic lens is represented by local black shadow on the ultrasonic image, but the black shadow will disappear if the black shadow is applied properly. This method can quickly distinguish the problem of acoustic lens from that of sound head. Generally speaking, the fault caused by acoustic lens will affect the diagnostic effect to some extent. In this case, it needs to be repaired or replaced with a new probe immediately. If the chip is exposed, it may cause potential danger to the patient. Meanwhile, the ultrasonic coupling agent will also corrode the chip, and the crystal will slowly break down and cannot be repaired. For the probe whose sound lens slowly melts due to too long time, generally speaking, the sound lens has been integrated into the chip and there is basically no way to repair the sound lens.