How to troubleshoot an ultrasound diagnostic instrument malfunction?

Ultrasound diagnosis is based on the development of modern electronicsCombining radar technology with acoustic principles, ultrasound diagnosis has a series of advantages such as non-invasiveness, high sensitivity, good repeatability, and suitability for differentiating soft tissues, and is widely valued and welcomed by the medical community. If malfunctions occur during the use of ultrasound equipment, it will have a serious impact on patients. Below, we will explain how to solve the problems encountered in our commonly used ultrasound equipment.

Brand: Siemens Ultrasound Diagnostic Instrument

Model: X300

Fault Phenomenon:

On-site observation of machine image interference, switching all probes showed interference in the same position. After communicating with the department staff, the machine was moved to another room, the power was turned on, and the machine image still showed the same interference. The possibility of external interference was ruled out, and the cause of the interference came from the machine itself.

Fault Description：

Generally, faults in the power supply or channel board of a color ultrasound machine will cause image interference. After replacing the DC main power supply and TR board to test the machine, the image interference still exists, and the interference situation has not changed, ruling out the possibility of a fault in the DC main power supply and TR board.

Solution：

1. The RC board is a receiving control board, which not only realizes the control function of ultrasonic wave emission and reception, but also converts the received data of the TR board into analog-to-digital.

2. The TI board is the probe interface board, mainly responsible for the connection and switching of the probe. Finally, the TI board was replaced to eliminate the interference fault.

Brand:GE Color Ultrasound Diagnostic Instrument

Model: LOGIQ E9

Fault Phenomenon:

The device could be used normally when it was turned on in the morning, but it suddenly crashed after several patients. Then, after restarting, the scanning area of the device showed a picture with 5 black holes, which is a virtual image.

Fault Description:

1. The cause of the virtual image is often the disconnection of the front-end and back-end links, so the components and lines of the front-end and back-end links were checked first.

2. During the disassembly and inspection process, it was found that the front end had no power supply, so it was suspected that the large power supply at the back had a fault.

3. Then, the power supply from another LOGIQ E9 was removed and installed for testing, and the fault remained, indicating that the large power supply had no problem.

4. Therefore, the front-end components were removed one by one for power-on testing. When the first transmitter was removed, the front end had power, indicating that this transmitter board had a problem.

Solution:

1. After removing this transmitter board, a capacitor was found to be burnt out on the component.

2. After purchasing a capacitor of the same model and replacing it, and then installing it on the device, the fault was eliminated.

Brand:GE Ultrasound Diagnostic Instrument

Model: VOLUSON E8

Fault Phenomenon:

The device cannot be turned on. After connecting the 220V AC power, the power switch indicator light turns yellow, but after pressing the power button, the machine does not respond, and the display remains black during this process.

Fault Description:

1. First consider the power supply problem .

2. Then check the back end of the machine.

3. Except for the probe, display, and control panel, the hardware of the device is mainly divided into the front end (ultrasonic transmission end) and the back end (PC).

4. The front end and back end are not powered on at the same time. The specific power-on sequence is: 

1) After the device is connected to 220V AC power, the main power supply (RTN) supplies AC power to the secondary power supply (RTP), which converts it into DC power through RTP. RTP first supplies power to the PC motherboard. After pressing the power button, the PC starts and self-checks the PC hardware; 

2) Load the system software on the hard disk and display the corresponding information on the monitor; 

3) After the PC2IP card in the PC is powered on, it sends a signal to RTP to start the front-end DC power supply in RTP, supplying the DC power required by various circuit boards in the front end to ensure that various circuit boards in the front end are in normal working condition when the PC software is started.

Solution:

1. According to the above analysis, unplug the power cord from the RTP at the bottom of the machine to the PC motherboard, connect the power supply to the market to detect its PC-end output voltage, and find that the output is normal and can drive a common household PC load, indicating that the PC power supply is normal. 

2. This machine has been used for many years, and the motherboard, memory sticks, graphics cards, and other hardware have poor contact or damage. The substitution method is used to detect each card one by one. When the graphics card is unplugged, the machine can start normally, but when the system on the hard disk starts to load, there is no image output on the large screen, but there is image display on the touch screen, so the fault point is locked on the graphics card. This model of color ultrasound uses an XFX GeForce 9600GT graphics card. After replacing it with the same model graphics card, the machine works normally.

Brand: Siemens Color Ultrasound Diagnostic Instrument

Model:X6

Fault Phenomenon：

The SONOACE X6 color ultrasound machine starts normally, but there is no display in the image area after entering the ultrasound working interface.

Fault Description:

1. From the working principle of the ultrasound machine, after the ultrasound machine is started, the power supply part supplies power to the probe interface board, the relay inside the interface board works, the probe connected to the machine works, the ultrasonic front-end part controls the emission of ultrasonic waves and the reception of echoes, and performs analog-to-digital conversion to transmit data to the back-end processing part. After the data stream is processed by the back-end, it forms an image output to the monitor and output to the workstation through the machine's input and output devices. 

2. There is no display in the image area of the ultrasound working interface, which can generally be classified into the following fault causes: 

1) Probe itself or probe interface board fault. When the probe cannot work normally, the machine cannot receive echoes normally, so it cannot form an image. 

2) Ultrasound front-end failure. The ultrasound machine front-end generally includes one or several channel boards. The channel boards have transmitting and receiving functions. When the channel board fails, the machine cannot normally form image output. 

3) Power supply failure. The ultrasound machine must have normal high-voltage power supply output to transmit ultrasound waves and receive echoes. If the high-voltage output of the power supply is abnormal, the machine cannot form an image.

4) Ultrasound back-end failure. After the ultrasound machine front-end receives the echo and performs analog-to-digital conversion processing, the data stream is transmitted to the back-end. If a failure occurs in the back-end processing at this time, including abnormal system software operation or motherboard failure, it may cause the machine to be unable to synthesize and output images normally. 

The SONOACE X6 probe interface board was disassembled, and the internal structure of the machine was observed to consist of only 3 plates: FE board, BE board, and POWER board. Since the machine started normally and the probe was carefully listened to for normal working sounds, and both probes of this machine had no image display, the possibility of probe interface board and probe failure was first ruled out. The Color mode and PW mode of the machine were opened, and the image area of the machine normally displayed this working mode, ruling out the possibility of ultrasound back-end failure, i.e., BE board failure. At this time, the fault may be concentrated on the FE board and the POWER board. The ultrasound front-end function of this machine is concentrated on the FE board, while the POWER board is responsible for the normal output of various voltages. After replacing the POWER board, the same fault occurred when the machine was tested, and finally the FE board problem was determined.

Solution:

The FE board was replaced, and the fault was eliminated.

Warm reminder: When a medical device malfunctions and you cannot solve the problem yourself, it is best to contact the manufacturer's professional after-sales service for repair, which is more convenient and reliable.

If you purchase medical equipment without purchasing a warranty, you can only rely on daily maintenance and repair when it breaks down. Repairing it by the original manufacturer is very expensive, and even for maintenance that the customer considers minor, the original manufacturer's Price is very high.

Therefore, the advantage of third-party maintenance is that it can have a significant Price advantage over the original manufacturer's repair in ordinary repairs. Third-party repair companies have advantages in terms of technology, Price, time, and flexibility, so it is more sensible to entrust them with maintenance.

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