Ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus

• US 20040102700A1
• Filed: 07/14/2003
• Published: 05/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Medical Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Medical Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Asafusa, Katsunori
• Granted Patent: US 6,866,634 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/437
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/13 Tomography A61B8/10, A61B8/12 take precedence; tomography for radiation diagnosis A61B6/02
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/483 involving the acquisition of a 3D volume of data
• CPC Class Codes: B06B 1/0207 Driving circuits specially adapted for particular applications, see the relevant subclass, e.g. G01; circuits for steering transducer arrays G10K11/34; basic circuits H03
• CPC Class Codes: B06B 1/0622 on one surface
• CPC Class Codes: B06B 2201/20 Application to multi-element transducer
• CPC Class Codes: B06B 2201/76 Medical, dental
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8925 the array being a two-dimensional transducer configuration, i.e. matrix or orthogonal linear arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8993 Three dimensional imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52085 Details related to the ultrasound signal acquisition, e.g. scan sequences control of medical diagnostic ultrasound devices A61B8/54
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52092 using frequency diversity
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/916 Ultrasound 3-D imaging

Abstract

An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus for obtaining and displaying a three-dimensional image within a short time by performing three-dimensional scanning in an object with ultrasonic beams at rapid speed. A plurality of small transducer blocks is formed through selective connection on a two-dimensional transducer array provided on an ultrasonic probe. Driving pulse signals generated by a pulse generating circuit are modulated by a frequency modulator. These driving pulse signals respectively having different frequencies are simultaneously provided to the selected small transducer blocks, causing said small transducer blocks to transmit ultrasonic beams from each of them to the interior of the object. Then, waves reflected from the interior of the object are received by each small transducer block. After the echo signals received by each small transducer block are demodulated by a demodulator, these signals are input to a phasing circuit to generate a plurality of received beam signals. The position of the small transducer blocks is moved at each repetition of ultrasonic transmission/repetition. Thus obtained received beam signals are image-processed and made into image data, and thus displayed on a display.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

an ultrasonic probe on which a plurality of ultrasonic transducers are arranged as a two-dimensional plane or a three-dimensional curved surface;

a transducer group selecting circuit for selecting a plurality of transducer groups at different positions on said transducer-arranged surface;

transmitting and receiving means for sending the signals characteristics of which are different from each other to each of the transducer groups selected by said transducer group selecting circuit, transmitting ultrasonic beams all at one time from each transducer group to the interior of the object to be examined, and then receiving their echo signals; and

means for performing three-dimensional ultrasonic scanning of the object by changing the position of the selected transducer groups at every repetition of the ultrasonic transmission/reception by controlling said selecting circuit, and by controlling said transmitting and receiving means to transmit and receive the ultrasonic beams.

4. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1-3, wherein the different characteristics of said transmitted signals are their frequency characteristics.

5. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1-4 comprising a pulse generating circuit, a transmission delay circuit, and a frequency modulator, wherein output of said pulse generating circuit is input to said frequency modulator to generate transmitted signals of which said frequency characteristics are different from each other.

6. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said frequency modulator is provided downstream of the transmission delay circuit.

7. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 5 or 6, wherein one of said plurality of transducer groups is provided with the transmitted signals that are not frequency-modulated.

8. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 5-7 comprising a demodulator in the receiving circuit of said transmitting and receiving means, wherein the echo signals received by said plurality of transducer groups are demodulated by the demodulator, then composed into an image by the image composing means.

9. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 8 comprising a phasing circuit for reception in said transmitting and receiving means, wherein said demodulator is provided upstream of this phasing circuit.

10. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus according to claim 1-9, wherein said transmitting and receiving means comprises means for forming a plurality of received beams from reflected signals of one transmitted beam transmitted by each transducer group.

2. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

an ultrasonic probe on which a plurality of ultrasonic transducer groups are arranged as a two-dimensional plane or a three-dimensional curved surface;

a transducer group selecting circuit for selecting a plurality of transducer groups to different positions on said transducer-arranged surface;

transmitting and receiving means for sending signals the characteristic of which are different from each other to each of the transducer groups selected by said transducer group selecting circuit, transmitting ultrasonic beams all at one time from each transducer group to the interior of the object to be examined, and then receiving their echo signals;

means for changing the position of the selected transducer group selected at each repetition of the ultrasonic transmission/reception by controlling said selecting circuit;

means for extracting the received beam signals that match the characteristics of the signals transmitted by each of said transducer groups from among the echo signals received by that transducer group;

image composing means for composing the above-extracted received beam signals to form three-dimensional image data; and

means for displaying an image for three-dimensional image data output by said image composing means.

3. An ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus comprising:

an ultrasonic probe on which a plurality of ultrasonic transducers are arranged as a two-dimensional plane or a three-dimensional curved surface;

a transducer group selecting circuit for selecting a plurality of transducer groups at different positions on said transducer-arranged surface;

transmitting and receiving means for sending signals the characteristics of which are different from each other to each of the transducer group selected by said transducer group selecting circuit, transmitting ultrasonic beams all at one time from each transducer group to the interior of the object to be examined, and then receiving their echo signals;

means for changing the position of the selected transducers at each repetition of the ultrasonic transmission/reception by controlling said selecting circuit;

means for forming received beam signals the characteristics of which are uniform from the echo signals received by said each transducer groups;

image composing means for composing the received beam signals the characteristics of which are uniform to form three-dimensional image data; and

image displaying means for displaying three-dimensional image data output by said image composing means.