LINEAR ARRAY ULTRASOUND TRANSDUCER WITH MICROBEAMFORMER
First Claim
1. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for imaging a volumetric region with a sequence of translated receive apertures comprising:
- an array of transducer elements, local groups of which comprise patches of elements having a width dimension;
a multi-channel beamformer producing a beamformed output signal; and
a microbeamformer including a plurality of delay lines, each delay line having an input coupled to an array element and an output producing a delayed signal which may be directed to channel of the multi-channel beamformer; and
a source of control signals, coupled to the microbeamformer, which act to control the direction of delay line outputs to channels of the multi-channel beamformer,wherein a receive aperture formed by the elements of multiple patches may be stepped from one aperture location of the transducer array for one beam to another aperture location of the transducer array for another beam in a step increment which is less than the width of a patch of elements.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system has a two dimensional array arranged in multiple patches of multiple transducer elements. Each patch of transducer elements is coupled to a group of microbeamformer delay lines having outputs coupled to a channel of a system beamformer, which beamforms the partially summed beams of each patch into a final beamformed signal. The outputs from multiple patches which are not simultaneously used in the active receive aperture are coupled to a common beamformer channel, enabling the number of patches of the array to exceed the number of channels of the system beamformer without the use of multiplexers.
97 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system for imaging a volumetric region with a sequence of translated receive apertures comprising:
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an array of transducer elements, local groups of which comprise patches of elements having a width dimension; a multi-channel beamformer producing a beamformed output signal; and a microbeamformer including a plurality of delay lines, each delay line having an input coupled to an array element and an output producing a delayed signal which may be directed to channel of the multi-channel beamformer; and a source of control signals, coupled to the microbeamformer, which act to control the direction of delay line outputs to channels of the multi-channel beamformer, wherein a receive aperture formed by the elements of multiple patches may be stepped from one aperture location of the transducer array for one beam to another aperture location of the transducer array for another beam in a step increment which is less than the width of a patch of elements. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of translating a receive aperture of an array of ultrasonic transducer elements, the aperture being a group of elements, the elements of the aperture being arranged in local groups of patches with a patch having a width dimension, comprising:
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receiving signals from the elements of an aperture which is located in a first location on the array; translating the aperture from the first location to a partially overlapping second location which is translated in a selected direction from the first location by; receiving signals from elements common to the two aperture locations, receiving signals from added elements adjacent to and beyond a side of the aperture in the first location which is in the selected direction, and not receiving signals from a complementary number of elements at the opposite side of the aperture in the first location, wherein the number of added elements in the selected direction is less than the width dimension of a patch. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification