Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

The disclosed ultrasound imaging apparatus and method use a transducer array with a very large number of transducer elements or a transducer array with many more transducer elements than beamformer channels. The imaging apparatus includes a transmit array including a multiplicity of transducer elements allocated into several transmit sub-arrays, and a receive array including a multiplicity of transducer elements allocated into several receive sub-arrays. The apparatus also includes several intra-group transmit processors, connected to the transmit sub-arrays, constructed and arranged to generate a transmit acoustic beam directed into a region of interest, and several intra-group receive processors connected to the receive sub-arrays. Each intra-group receive processor is arranged to receive, from the transducer elements of the connected sub-array, transducer signals in response to echoes from the transmit acoustic beam. Each intra-group receive processor includes delay and summing elements constructed to delay and sum the received transducer signals. The apparatus also includes a receive beamformer including several processing channels connected to the intra-group receive processors, wherein each processing channel includes a beamformer delay constructed and arranged to synthesize receive beams from the echos by delaying signals received from the intra-group receive processor, and a beamformer summer (a summing junction) constructed and arranged to receive and sum signals from the processing channels. An image generator is constructed and arranged to form an image of the region of interest based on signals received from the receive beamformer. The apparatus is practical in size, cost and complexity and is sufficiently fast to provide two-dimensional or three-dimensional images of moving body organs.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim