A piezoelectric crystal changes the physical dimensions when subjected to an electric field. When deformed by external pressure, an electric field is created across the crystal. Piezoelectric ceramic and crystals are used in ultrasound transducers to transmit and receive ultrasound waves.
The piezoelectric crystal in ultrasound transducers has electrodes attached to its front and back for the application and detection of electrical charges. The crystal consists of numerous dipoles, and in the normal state, the individual dipoles have an oblique orientation with no net surface charge.
In ultrasound physics, an electric field applied across the crystal will realign the dipoles and results in compression or expansion of the crystal, depending on the direction of the electric field. For the transmission of a short ultrasound pulse, a voltage spike of very short duration is applied, causing the crystal to initially contract and then vibrate for a short time with its resonant frequency.

See also Composite Array, Transducer Pulse Control, and Temporal Peak Intensity.

2D ultrasound imaging is a widely used technique in medical imaging that provides two-dimensional visual representations of internal structures. A handheld device known as a probe or transducer contains piezoelectric crystals that emit and receive ultrasound waves which penetrate tissues and bounce back as echoes. The echoes are detected and converted into electrical signals. These signals are processed and displayed on a monitor, creating a real-time 2D grayscale image, with different shades of gray representing various tissue densities. The brighter areas on the image correspond to structures that reflect more ultrasound waves, while darker areas represent structures that reflect fewer waves or are attenuated by intervening tissues. The 2D-mode (or B-mode) provides cross-sectional views of the scanned area, showing a single plane or slice of the scanned area at a time.

Key Features and Uses of 2D Ultrasound:

Comparison with 3D and 4D Ultrasound:
See also Ultrasound Technology, Sonographer, Ultrasound Elastography, Obstetric and Gynecologic Ultrasound.

An array transducer is composed of multiple piezoelectric crystal elements arranged in an array. Arrays are transducer assemblies with a row of elements, used to focus the beam.

Types of array transducers:

See also Amplitude Shading, Transducer Types, and Transducer Assembly.

An ultrasound element is a single slab of piezoelectric crystal that is cut into a linear collection of separate pieces. The separate pieces are called elements. Each element is wired separately to the transducer and they are fired in groups that are coordinated by a microprocessor. The elements are electrically configured to control the direction and characteristics of the sound beam.

See also Subdicing.

The near field (also called Fresnel zone) is the proximal part of an ultrasound beam. The Fresnel zone is adjacent to the transducer surface and has a converging sound beam profile. A narrow beam shape is maintained in the near field owing to constructive and destructive interference patterns of sound wavelets emitted from the transducer crystal.
The length of the near field is equal to
r²/l = d²/4l
where r is the radius, l is the ultrasound wavelength in the medium of propagation and d the diameter of the piezoelectric crystal.

See also Beam Pattern, and Sonographic Features.