ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,408,894, issued on Sept. 9, was assigned to OLYMPUS Corp. (Tokyo).
"Ultrasound endoscope" was invented by Jin Hiraoka (Sagamihara, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An ultrasound endoscope includes: a balloon suction duct that is provided inside an insertion portion and that is where liquid inside a balloon is suctioned through, the balloon covering an ultrasound transducer positioned at a distal end of the insertion portion; a rigid portion that includes a balloon groove and an end surface positioned at an end portion of the rigid portion, the end portion being on a distal end side of the balloon groove, the end surface being a surf...