Ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus

• US 20060036169A1
• Filed: 07/07/2005
• Published: 02/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Satoh, Tomoo
• Granted Patent: US 7,393,324 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/437
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/14 Echo-tomography
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8952 using discrete, multiple frequencies
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/8979 Combined Doppler and pulse-echo imaging systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52033 Gain control of receivers for seismic signals G01V1/245
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/5209 using multibeam transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/52092 using frequency diversity
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/346 using phase variation

Abstract

An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus in which scanning time is shortened by simultaneously transmitting plural ultrasonic beams in plural directions and separation among the plural ultrasonic beams is improved. The ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus includes: an ultrasonic probe including plural ultrasonic transducers; a drive signal generating unit for generating plural drive signals for simultaneously transmitting in plural directions plural kinds of ultrasonic beams corresponding to plural kinds of spread spectrum signals obtained by adding at a predetermined rate frequency components which have been discretely selected from among plural frequency components having different center frequencies; and a reception side signal processing unit for performing plural kinds of phase matching so as to form plural reception focal points corresponding to a number of transmitted ultrasonic beams based on plural reception signals.

Claims

1. An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus comprising:

an ultrasonic probe including ultrasonic transducers for transmitting ultrasonic waves to an object to be inspected according to plural drive signals and receiving ultrasonic echoes reflected from the object to output plural reception signals, respectively;

drive signal generating means for generating plural drive signals for simultaneously transmitting from said ultrasonic probe in plural directions plural kinds of ultrasonic beams corresponding to plural kinds of spread spectrum signals obtained by adding frequency components, which have been discretely selected from among plural frequency components having different center frequencies in a transmission band, to each other at a predetermined rate; and

reception side signal processing means for performing signal processing on the plural reception signals respectively outputted from said plural ultrasonic transducers and performing plural kinds of phase matching so as to form plural reception focal points corresponding to a number of ultrasonic beams transmitted from said ultrasonic probe based on the plural reception signals which have been subjected to the signal processing.

2. An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said drive signal generating means generates plural drive signals for simultaneously transmitting from said ultrasonic probe in plural directions plural kinds of ultrasonic beams corresponding to plural kinds of spread spectrum signals obtained by adding frequency components, which have been discretely selected from among plural frequency components orthogonal to each other and having different center frequencies in a transmission band, to each other at a predetermined rate.

3. An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said drive signal generating means generates plural drive signals for simultaneously transmitting from said ultrasonic probe in plural directions plural kinds of ultrasonic beams corresponding to plural kinds of spread spectrum signals based on plural groups of frequency components selected in a predetermined order from among plural frequency components having different center frequencies in a transmission band, said plural kinds of spread spectrum signals being obtained by adding frequency components within each group of frequency components to each other at a predetermined rate.

4. An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said drive signal generating means generates the plural drive signals by combining plural kinds of waveforms obtained by performing plural kinds of delaying processing for transmission beam forming on the plural kinds of spread spectrum signals.

5. An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said drive signal generating means includes:

waveform data generating means for respectively generating waveform data representing waveforms of plural drive signals for simultaneously transmitting from said ultrasonic probe in plural directions plural kinds of ultrasonic beams corresponding to plural kinds of spread spectrum signals; and

plural transmitting circuits for generating the plural drive signals based on the waveform data generated by said waveform data generating means and supplying the plural drive signals to said ultrasonic probe.

6. An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

scan control means for controlling said waveform data generating means so as to change directions of the plural ultrasonic beams transmitted from said ultrasonic probe in accordance with a predetermined scan method.

7. An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said drive signal generating means obtains plural kinds of spread spectrum signals turned into pseudo white noise by shifting phase relationships among plural frequency components having different center frequencies from each other in a transmission band and adding frequency components, which have been discretely selected from among the plural frequency components, to each other at a predetermined rate.

8. An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said reception side signal processing means obtains plural kinds of signals by performing plural kinds of phase matching and addition on the plural reception signals so as to form plural reception focal points corresponding to a number of ultrasonic beams simultaneously transmitted from said ultrasonic probe, and performs pulse compression processing on each of the plural kinds of signals.

9. An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said reception side signal processing means obtains frequency components, in which lacking information has been restored, by performing filter processing and interpolation processing on each of the plural kinds of signals, and performs pulse compression processing by providing different delay amounts to the frequency components and adding the frequency components to each other at a predetermined rate.